Fortissimo Spring 2013 by Faber Music

FABER MUSIC NEWS SPRING 2013

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SPECIAL FEATURES

David Matthews at 70

‘For anyone yet to be convinced that David Matthews is a major contemporary British composer, this consummately fashioned, gloriously expansive recent score [Quartet No 12] offers the strongest of evidence to support such a claim.’ Tempo (Paul Conway), January 2013

JONATHAN HARVEY Tributes p 28 THOMAS ADÈS Acclaim for Met’s ‘Tempest’ p 7 BENJAMIN BRITTEN Centenary Celebrations p 4-5 VALGEIR SIGURÐSSON New composer signing p 24 COMMEMORATING WWI Programme suggestions p 6

Tuning In • New Publications & Recordings • Music for Now • Media Music • Publishing News

DAVID MATTHEWS AT 70 As David Matthews reaches 70 this year, it is a fitting time to evaluate this most distinctive British composer, to explore his substantial oeuvre and to look back at a long and distinguished career. Matthews’s style could be characterised, in the words of Malcolm McDonald, as ‘a potent distillation and development of certain qualities that distinguish the Tippett, Britten and Maw generations of English composers: notably their ecstatic melodic writing and vibrantly expanded tonal harmony.’ And unlike many contemporary composers, Matthews has been much concerned with working in the great inherited forms of the past – symphony, string quartet, lately oratorio – and finding new ways of renewing them. As MacDonald writes, Matthews is ‘a composer fiercely committed to the power and the enduring validity of traditional, and indeed national, conceptions of music.’

THE SYMPHONIES & TONE POEMS ‘…Matthews has emerged as a leading 21st Century exponent of the [symphonic] form…’ Gramophone (Arnold Whittall), September 2010

Matthews is one of the most formidable living symphonists, with seven symphonies and four symphonic poems to his name (not to mention a host of other orchestral works and concerti). These are works which have brought him acclaim and accolades, including a BBC Music Magazine Award for the recent recording of the second and sixth symphonies.

New Tone Poem: ‘A Vision of the Sea’

‘A figure once considered awkwardly out of step with his time, his highly original ear and masterful craftsmanship may lead historians to accord him greater respect than his contemporaries always have… He bears comparison, in this respect, with Sibelius, who felt ill at ease with his epoch but is now considered completely central.’ 2

The Guardian (Guy Dammann), 6 May 2012 DAVID MATTHEWS © CLIVE BARDA

Matthews has often engaged with themes of landscape, with the change of the seasons and with the special light quality of dawn and dusk. His latest orchestral piece, a 20-minute symphonic poem, captures just this essence: ‘My piece is called A Vision of the Sea - the title comes from a poem by Shelley. Most of the piece was written at my house in Deal in Kent, where I am constantly aware of the sea. I have attempted to portray the sea in all its various moods, as I have observed them. I have included the calls of herring gulls, which I hear all day while writing. The piece ends with an evocation of dawn over the sea - which I often see in winter based on the sound of the sunrise as recorded by scientists at Sheffield University…’ David Matthews

The work will be premiered this summer by the BBC Philharmonic and its principal conductor Juanjo Mena.

ARRANGEMENTS As if his talents as a composer of original music weren’t enough, Matthews is also a much-sought after arranger. Highlights include his reduced orchestration of Britten’s Owen Wingrave and a selection of Dvorák Love Songs arranged for medium voice and strings.

‘Fantasy on themes from Swan Lake’ The world premiere of Fantasy on themes from Swan Lake – Matthews’s 9-minute arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s most famous themes for violin and orchestra – took place this March in Canada with the Edmonton SO and violinist Eric Buchmann.

HIGHLIGHTS Selected forthcoming performances

CHAMBER MUSIC

MUSIC FOR STRINGS

Of all genres, Matthews is most prolific as a composer of chamber music, with over fifty chamber pieces – including twelve celebrated string quartets – to his name. There is many a hidden gem to be found.

Rich textures, brevity and lyricism characterise Matthews’s string writing. There are many characterful works including the Adagio for String Orchestra (8 mins), Introit for two trumpets and strings (8 mins), and Total Tango (5 mins) for strings.

String quartets receive yet more acclaim The Kreutzer Quartet are working their way through a project to record all of Matthews much-loved string quartets. Their latest instalment, released last year on Toccata Classics, features Matthews’s most recent quartet, the epic five-movement Quartet No 12, alongside his earlier Quartet No 5. The recording has received an extraordinary level of praise:

‘With its inclusivity, breadth and multi-movement structure, No.12 is unashamedly modelled on the late Beethoven quartets, and like those visionary masterpieces it constitutes a very individual utterance that achieves universal appeal through sheer ambition and range.’ Tempo (Paul Conway), January 2013

‘Matthews’s music is consistently fascinating and expertly crafted. What’s more, he has an individual voice that deserves exploration… The writing is astonishingly assured.’ Fanfare Magazine (Colin Clarke), December 2012

MUSIC FOR PIANO Matthews may have come late to writing piano music – ‘For a long time I thought that my own limited playing technique was a barrier to writing truly idiomatic piano music’ – but following an invitation from Gavin Henderson, Matthews began work on a piano concerto. One that ‘avoided the rhetoric and grand scale of the nineteenth-century concerto,’ that was ‘more Mozartian in conception.’

CD of piano music released This concerto opens a new disc exploring Matthews’s growing catalogue of piano music. Released in March on Toccata Classics, it features dazzling Finnish pianist Laura Mikkola, with Orchestra Nova and conductor George Vass. Other works include the Piano Sonata (15 mins), Matthews first attempt to write “a really substantial piece of piano music;” the ‘classical’ Theme and Variations (16 mins); and two smaller pieces, Two Dionysus Dithyrambs inspired by Nietzsche’s last poems and the “slightly manic” One to Tango.

Piano work for Spitalfields and Cheltenham festivals 2013 also sees the premiere of Matthews’s latest piano composition, Four Portraits, a 12-minute work for solo piano. The piece has been commissioned by pianist William Howard, and will be performed by him at the Spitalfields Festival in June and the Cheltenham Festival in July.

Works by David Matthews To receive a catalogue of David Matthews’s works, please contact: promotion@fabermusic.com

Violin/Viola concerto for Cheltenham Festival This year’s Cheltenham Festival will feature the premiere of Matthews’s new concerto for violin, viola and strings (co-commissioned by the Cheltenham and Presteigne Festivals, along with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta). It will be performed by Welsh Sinfonia and soloists Anthony Marwood and Lawrence Power. Matthews will also be onhand for a Festival Lunch & Conversation, where he will join his brother Colin to discuss their working relationship with Benjamin Britten, as well as spending time with the festival’s young composers’ academy.

‘Skies now are Skies’ arranged for strings In his String Quartet No.7 – Skies now are Skies – Matthews unusually adds a tenor to the lineup and sets texts by DH Lawrence, ee Cummings and extracts from The Song of Songs. He has now arranged the work for full string orchestra and tenor and the new version will be premiered by the Orchestra of the Swan in Stratford-upon-Avon on 31 May.

CHORAL MUSIC Matthews’s oeuvre includes fourteen choral works both liturgical and secular, unaccompanied and with orchestral forces.

‘Fortune’s Wheel’ – a ‘magical and fascinating’ new choral work In December the ancient interior of Winchester Cathedral resounded with new music as Fortune’s Wheel, a major new Matthews work, received its world premiere. The 15-minute piece for chorus and small orchestra, based on a Latin text by Boethius, was splendidly performed by the Waynflete Singers and Aurora Orchestra. Although challenging, it is clearly a piece that amateur singers can find richly rewarding.

‘Fortune’s Wheel… delivered some fabulously atmospheric writing in Matthews’s most Britten-like vein… the effect was beautiful...’ The Telegraph (Michael White), 12 December 2012

‘This was advanced writing with many eight-part choral textures, rich non-functional harmonies, challenging unaccompanied passages and orchestral sounds ranging from the opaque to the crystalline... The total effect was fascinating and magical…’ Derek Beck, conductor, Twyford Singers

From Sea to Sky / Three Birds and a Farewell 25.4.13, Younger Hall, St Andrews University, UK: St Andrews Chamber Orchestra/ Michael Downes

Piano Trio No 3

25.4.13, Fundraising concert for Presteigne Festival, 22 Mansfield Street, London, UK: Leonore Piano Trio

Piano Trio No 2 28.4.13, Blackheath Concert Halls, London, UK: Grier Trio

White Nights

27.5.13, English Music Festival, Dorchester Abbey, UK: Rupert Marshall-Luck/Orchestra of St Paul’s/Ben Palmer

Skies Now Are Skies

31.5.13, Stratford Civic Hall, Stratford, UK: Simon Wall/ The Orchestra of the Swan/ David Curtis

Four Portraits for Piano

(world premiere)

14.6.13, Spitalfields Festival, UK: William Howard

The Flaying of Marsyas

27.6.13, City of London Festival, London, UK: Jacqueline Shave/ Britten Sinfonia/ Nicholas Daniel

Romanza

29.6.13, Prom’s at St Jude’s, St Jude on the Hill, Hampstead Garden Suburb, UK: Madeleine Mitchell /Orchestra Nova/ George Vass

Psalm 23 The Lord is my Shepherd

30.6.13, Ramsey Festival, Cambridgeshire, UK: Addison Singers/David Wordsworth

Four Portraits for Piano 3, 5.7.13, Tour, UK: William Howard

Concerto for Violin and Viola

(world premiere)

7.7.13, Cheltenham Music Festival, UK: Anthony Marwood/ Lawrence Power/Welsh Sinfonia/ Mark Eager

A Vision of the Sea

(world premiere)

16.7.13, Royal Albert Hall, London, UK: BBC Philharmonic Orchestra/Juan Jose Mena

Concerto for Violin and Viola

24.8.13, Presteigne Festival, UK: Sara Trickey/Sarah-Jane Bradley/ Presteigne Festival Orchestra

FABER MUSIC CELEBRATES THE CENTENARY ‘He singlehandedly established opera in Britain – from a standing start. He also essentially created chamber opera – smallscale opera as a form. He established a format where opera could be toured and brought to the people.’ Colin Matthews

When Rostropovich was writing, Britten’s time was still to come. With the arrival of his centenary in 2013, perhaps we can finally say it has arrived. With the world’s most famous orchestras, opera companies, festivals and conductors celebrating Britten’s music in over 140 cities across 30 countries (significant premieres of his works are happening in Brazil, Chile, Palestine, New Zealand and China), Britten’s reach will be truly global. Not only that, but the centenary celebrations will extend to books, films, dance, radio, and special television programming, recordings, exhibitions, conferences, online initiatives for children, heritage trails, and even a new 50p coin bearing his profile. 2013 may also mark bicentenaries for Wagner and Verdi, but these will be far eclipsed by Britten’s centenary, in what is undoubtedly the most widely celebrated anniversary of any British composer, ever. This then is a good moment to reassess Britten’s music, to take stock of how, in the words of one critic, ‘Britten has never suffered the eclipse which most artists experience in the era after their deaths,’ and to appreciate his extraordinary legacy. His friends, colleagues, and successors share their thoughts:

‘I am sure that Britten’s time is not yet come; his greatness is not yet realised in full measure by the world. But his time is coming, like that of Mahler and Shostakovich before him.’ Mstislav Rostropovich

‘When you hear Britten’s music... you become aware of something dark. There are gears that are grinding and not quite meshing, and they make a great pain.’ Leonard Bernstein

‘He was an absolute pioneer in music education. He was years ahead of his time, doing the sort of thing in the 1940s that people assume was invented by the Arts Council decades later.’ Jonathan Reekie, chief executive of Aldeburgh Music

‘His great gift was clarity of thought... there are no extraneous notes.’ 44

Michael Berkeley

HIGHLIGHTS

OF ITS FOUNDER BENJAMIN BRITTEN ‘Death in Venice’ performances, including Russian premiere

Chamber version of ‘Owen Wingrave’ performed around the world

Britten’s final opera Death in Venice is a dark, restrained work. It may not have had the immediate success of say Peter Grimes, but as tenor Ian Bostridge describes: ‘its brilliant sound-worlds, its compelling musico-dramatic use of endlessly varied and reconfigured thematic material, its melodic invention - make Death in Venice perhaps Britten’s greatest opera.’ The opera contains many of the underlying dramatic themes that characterise Britten’s music; and as his final operatic creation, it is a fitting and glorious summation of his life’s work. In June English National Opera will revive its acclaimed 2007 production with director Deborah Warner and conductor Edward Gardner. The same production then travels to Netherlands Opera in July for a series of performances with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. A new production by director Alvaro Schoeck will be staged at the Pfalztheater, Kaiserslautern, Germany in June. And in the autumn Opera North (who must take the record for performing four of Britten’s operas in one year) will take Death in Venice on tour to Leeds, Newcastle, Salford, Nottingham and Aldeburgh. Finally, December sees the Russian premiere of the work at the Moscow Conservatory with a cast including Ian Bostridge and Iestyn Davies.

In 2007 David Matthews worked on a reduced orchestration of Britten’s opera Owen Wingrave. This has brought new life to the opera and as one critic put it, made the original ‘swifter and meatier.’ As Matthews himself explains: ‘The scoring of Owen Wingrave, is closer to Britten’s chamber operas - Albert Herring and The Turn of the Screw - than to Peter Grimes or Billy Budd. So it was relatively straightforward to make a reduction from the original double woodwind, seven brass, three percussion, harp, piano and strings to an ensemble of 15 players - single wind, horn, trumpet and trombone, two percussion, piano and string quintet... the intimacy of the story suits chamber forces. The elaborate percussion part had to be scaled down, and the original harp and piano parts combined; but in general there was very little that I had to omit, and the overall sound remains authentic.’ In the centenary year alone, seven productions of this new version are taking place. Since January the opera has been performed in the Netherlands with Opera Trionfo, at Boston University and at the Kimmel Center, Philadelphia. In April, Opéra du Rhin take up the baton with several performances around France. British audiences will have the opportunity to hear the opera at the Guildhall School of Music in June and then in Aldeburgh with the Oxbridge Opera Company in September. In November it travels to Cincinnati. Further productions are planned for 2014.

Mahogany Opera Church Parables tour The opportunity to hear Britten’s three Church Parables – Curlew River, The Burning Fiery Furnace and The Prodigal Son – in three successive performances is normally a rare one, but this summer Mahogany Opera will present fully staged productions of each Parable in Russia, Aldeburgh, London and Buxton: • 4 June Hermitage Theatre, St Petersburg • 5-8 June St Ekaterina’s, St Petersburg • 16-19 June Orford Church, Aldeburgh Festival • 3-6 July Southwark Cathedral, City of London Festival • 14-15 July St John the Baptist Church, Buxton Festival

In each case the Parables will be performed as a triptych over two evenings; Curlew River on the opening evening, The Prodigal Son in the late afternoon of the next day, culminating in The Burning Fiery Furnace in the later evening. The works have never been performed in this way, and Mahogany Opera hope to ‘take the audience on a profound journey through these intense and powerful works.’ Director Frederic Wake-Walker, will join Musical Director Roger Vignoles and the Aurora Orchestra.

Intercollegiate string quartet competition Although early works, Britten’s string quartets are some of his most enduring creations and this April they will be given a chance to shine as part of an intercollegiate competition. Student quartets from the eight UK conservatoires will perform in this one-off competition, adjudicated by Colin Matthews and Martin Lovett. The repertoire choice includes Rhapsody for string quartet, Quartettino, Phantasy in F minor, Alla Marcia and Three Divertimenti. These early works of Britten’s were specifically chosen as it was felt this created a particularly relevant connection with the young musicians taking part. The free event takes place at the Royal Academy of Music on 22 April 1-5pm.

First ever staging of ‘Plymouth Town’ ballet Since his death, much of Britten’s unperformed early music has come to light. Not least among these is Plymouth Town a 25-minute ballet Britten composed in 1931 following his first year at the Royal College of Music. The scenario – young sailor on the town meets ‘good girls’ who ignore him and ‘bad girl’ who steals his possessions, leaving him repentant as officers escort him back to the ship – foreshadows dominant themes of Britten’s later work: innocence and its loss. As David Matthews writes, the piece has ‘an engaging freshness and vitality that make it a worthy addition to the Britten canon.’ A concert performance was given at Royal College of Music in 2004, and a recording was made by the BBCSO in 2005, but the ballet itself has never been staged, until now. On 1 July Chethams’s School of Music (with conductor Jeremy Pike) and The Hammond Dance School (with choreographer Jane Elliot) will give the full world premiere at the RNCM’S Opera Theatre. An occasion not to miss!

Centenary publications

Out now: • 6 Early Songs (1929-31) for medium voice and piano £10.99 • Trio for violin, viola and piano (1929), £24.99 • Variations for piano (1965), completed by Colin Matthews, £9.99 All available from www.fabermusicstore.com

To follow later in the year: • Occasional Overture (1946) arranged for brass band by Paul Hindmarsh • Three Suites for cello (op.72, 80 & 87) transcribed for viola by Nobuko Imai

COMMEMORATING THE FIRST WORLD WAR Jonathan Harvey Colin Matthews No Man’s Land (25 mins, tenor, baritone & chamber orchestra) Premiered at the 2011 Proms and 2012 BASCA awarding-winning piece. The text, by Christopher Reid, evokes the ghosts of two soldiers hanging on barbed wire, but there is some humour to this grim subject and the piece includes the use of some evocative gramophone recordings from the era.

‘…a piece of striking worth’ (Telegraph, 2012)

Aftertones (26mins, soprano, chorus & orchestra) Premiered in Huddersfield in 2000. The text is by Edmund Blunden (1896 - 1974) a war poet that remained pastoral at heart. The music underlines the essential gentleness of Blunden.

Torsten Rasch

As the centenary of World War I dawns upon us in 2014, it is difficult to know how to commemorate such devastating events. But the artistic response to the tragic years 1914-18 points a way forward. Works such as Britten’s War Requiem and the renowned poetry of Sassoon, Owen, Thomas et al. have entered the national psyche, keeping the memory alive and providing a focal point from which to reflect on themes of war and peace. Moreover, the events of the Great War continue to illicit an artistic response, and to this day new artists are choosing to explore and memorialise that fateful time. Here is a selection from Faber Music’s own composers. If you would like to find out more about any of these works please contact promotion@ fabermusic.com or call 020 7908 5311.

A German composer provides his own response to World War One. 4 Songs (10 mins, baritone & piano) A collection of songs with texts by Ivor Gurney – composer and poet – A. E. Houseman – whose poems inspired a host of early twentieth-century composers – and Alun Lewis – widely considered one of the finest poets of World War Two. To be premiered in July by Roderick Williams at the 2013 Three Choirs Festival. Major new WWI commission for the 2014 Three Choirs Festival (40 mins, soloists, choir & orchestra), to be premiered by the Philharmonia. Texts by Dymock and German poets. I See Phantoms (22 mins, dramatic scene for baritone & cello) Premiered at the Wigmore Hall in July 2012 by Wolfgang Holzmair. Text by W.B. Yeats Meditations in Time of Civil War.

Tansy Davies As with Voices and with Tears (23 mins, SATB choir, strings & electronics) Written for the Remembrance Sunday service in Portsmouth Cathedral in 2010. The text is Walt Whitman’s Dirge for Two Veterans, the tale of a father and son, killed side by side in combat.

‘a haunting, richly textured, mesmerising requiem…’ (Observer, 2010)

The themes of life, death, peace and spirituality fill almost all of Harvey’s music. Song of June (5 mins, SATB choir) First performed at St John’s Smith Square in 2010. Text by Wilfred Owen. A stunning and poignant evocation of a beautiful summer’s day in the Pyrenees, written the same month that the war began. Plainsongs for Peace and Light (8 mins, 16 voices) Harvey’s last work, based on sacred Latin texts. Premiered in March in Latvia by the Latvian Radio Choir, with a further performance by them at the Aldeburgh Festival this June.

Vladimír Godár Querela pacis (The Complaint of Peace) (75 mins, soprano, alto and bass soloists, SATB chorus and chamber orchestra) Pacifist oratorio, commissioned to be performed alongside Handel’s Utrecht Te Deum, itself composed on the establishment of the Peace of Utrecht. Godár: ‘It is no doubt noble to celebrate the ending of war and the establishment of peace. However, in my opinion the end of a war is rather a reason to meditate on the causes of war and to search for ideas that could once and for all erase it from our world.’

‘…unbelievably touching, like an unselfish prayer, like an arrow aimed to God.’ (Last FM, 2012)

Howard Goodall Eternal Light: A Requiem (40 mins, soprano, tenor and/or baritone soloists, SATB chorus, keyboards and strings) First produced in 2008, the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I, alongside choreography by Mark Baldwin, danced by Rambert Dance Company. Goodall: ‘Alongside the Latin text phrases I have juxtaposed John McCrae’s haunting war poem In Flanders fields. McCrae, a Canadian military doctor of great distinction, died on the Western Front in January 1918. His poem is read each year at Canadian Remembrance services.’

HIGHLIGHTS

ADÈS’S ‘THE TEMPEST’ REACHES THE MET Met performances of ‘The Tempest’ were ‘magical in every respect’ ‘Magical’, ‘pure, sensual enchantment’, ‘simply magnificent.’ These are phrases not often given to contemporary opera; phrases, moreover, rarely heard amongst New York’s discerning audience. But Thomas Adès’s The Tempest is no ordinary opera and when it reached New York’s Metropolitan Opera in October, it was the talk of the town, with the press once again proclaiming this work as ‘among the most important and successful operas of the 21st century.’ The opera’s magic was not confined to New York alone - a live performance of The Tempest was transmitted live in HD to more than 1,800 cinemas in 55 countries around the world, including 125 cinemas across the UK. At the Met performances – starring baritone Simon Keenlyside as Prospero, soprano Audrey Elizabeth Luna as Ariel and tenor Alan Oke as Caliban – Adès’s extraordinary, otherworldly music was matched by an equally breath-taking new production by director Robert Lepage, that set the action in the creaking, old interior of 18th-century La Scala. The same production will be staged at the Wiener Staatsoper as part of the 2014/15 season.

‘The opera was simply magnificent, and I felt so proud and excited to have been anywhere near such an act of transformation… Sometimes, something excellent gets the treatment it deserves. This was one of those occasions’ The Independent (Philip Hensher), 26 October 2012

‘…the opera is one of the most compelling new works of recent years, and the production by Robert Lepage matches it in imagination and originality… The musical moods of the score shift constantly, underlining its seamless dramatic arc... the effect is pure, sensual enchantment…’ The Wall Street Journal (Heidi Waleson), 24 October 2012

‘At its London premiere I thought The Tempest one of the most inspired, audacious and personal operas to have come along in years. I feel this even more strongly after the Met’s fantastical production…’

‘The Tempest is an exemplary reminder of why we go to the opera… You know it from the first minutes, in which a high, crystalline chord is shattered by a sonic gale, and Miranda appears onstage, fretting over the damage in agitated melodic leaps, while gusts of orchestral music whip around her voice… this remains a drama powered by a marvel of a score… [Adès] showers the audience with a spangled rain of sounds, haloing vocal lines with shimmering harmonies.’ New York Magazine (Justin Davidson), 28 October 2012

‘[a] reminder of why we go to the opera’ ‘…what emerged at the Met this week was proof of The Tempest’s everdeepening musical and theatrical power… The notes have a crystalline precision that makes you feel that not one of them is out of place... It’s a bejewelled rightness that releases the emotions and personalities of his characters… The Tempest is among the most important and successful operas of the 21st century, and in this production, it’s revealed to its full potential.’ The Guardian (Tom Service), 26 October 2012

‘The score manages the nearly impossible task of our postmodern era: being eclectic without feeling inorganic or inauthentic. It runs the gamut from the jazzy rhythms of the very beginning to a Baroque-inspired quintet near the end, and it never sounds like pastiche. It all sounds like Adès.’

‘among the most important and successful operas of the 21st century’

‘pure, sensual enchantment…’

The New York Observer (Zachary Woolfe), 24 October 2012

‘[Adès provides] sharp psychological insight, humor, magic, and a lingering air of melancholy. Shot through with the archaic beauty of Meredith Oakes’ libretto and brought to life in a dazzling and thought-provoking production by Robert Lepage, The Tempest is one of the most satisfying operas to blow onto the stage of the Met in years.’ The Classical Review (Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim), 24 October 2012

New York Times (Anthony Tommasini), 24 October 2012 PHOTOS: ‘THE TEMPEST’ PRODUCTION PHOTOS © THE MET/KEN HOWARD

Selected forthcoming performances

Tansy Davies ‘Spine’ CD displays ‘emotional depth & unrestrained exuberance’

neon/salt box/ Troubairitz/ grind show (electric)/loure/ Dark Ground/ Aquatic/ Greenhouses

Following the success of Tansy Davies’ first commercial CD, Troubairitz, NMC has released a new disc, Spine, devoted to the composer. The nine featured pieces cover 10 years of Davies’ career and encompass a number of genres from solo songs to large ensemble works. The performers include many who already have a strong connection with Davies and her music including BCMG, conductor Christopher Austin, pianist Huw Watkins and percussionist Joby Burgess. The disc has attracted much praise:

9.4.13, UBS Eclectica, LSO St Luke’s, London, UK: Azalea Ensemble/New Noise/Anna Snow/Damien Harron/Christopher Austin

new work

(world premiere) 24.8.13, Royal Albert Hall, London, UK: English Chamber Orchestra

‘Impressive’ piano concerto receives London premiere Tansy Davies’ piano concerto Nature (20 mins, 10 players) is a work like no other. ‘It explores the edge of a wilderness where man meets Nature or the Supernatural,’ explains Davies, a realm were the piano becomes ‘a wild woman, driven by the desire to connect the earthly and spiritual realms.’ The result is a disorientating, yet deeply captivating and dazzling sound world. Critical acclaim has followed the work since its premiere by BCMG in May 2012. Further confirmation of this most unique piece came in December when the concerto received its London premiere at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, with soloist Huw Watkins and the London Sinfonietta.

‘Davies’s Nature sent the piano scuttling in angular gestures through a teeming nocturnal forest, where it battled briefly with a harp before the forest quietened. Soloist Huw Watkins dashed off hiccupping rhythms and ungainly leaps with awesome aplomb. Best of all, this singular and impressive piece, both abrasive and glittering, made structural and emotional sense.’ The Times (Geoff Brown), 4 December 2012

‘this singular and impressive piece, both abrasive and glittering, made structural and emotional sense’

‘It’s hard to think of another British composer whose rise through the hierarchy of British music has been so rapid… As this disc shows, her music is at its most compelling when it creates vivid textures, drawing on rock and pop idioms to give it edge and pungency… There’s no mistaking the sensibility at work, nor the inventiveness and physicality that are so distinctive.’ The Guardian (Andrew Clements), 23 August 2012

‘There’s no mistaking the sensibility at work, nor the inventiveness and physicality that are so distinctive.’ ‘A diverse collection… ranging from the laconic Scarlatti inventions of Loopholes and Lynchpins, to the Bach-inspired monologue of Loure and the oblique ritual of Dark Ground… the Dowland deconstruction of make black white is among the most impressive in its radical reimagining of the viol consort sound as well as its sense…’ Gramophone Magazine (Richard Whithouse), November 2012

‘the scope of the nine works feels expansive and thoughtful.... Loure is one of the most deeply introspective works I’ve ever heard… Iris exemplifies the best of Davies’ music, held together in an awkward, gritty tension that allows for both emotional depth and unrestrained exuberance.’ 5:4 blogspot (Simon Cummings), 5 October 2012

‘A great portrait CD by our great composer who never repeats herself… the sequence here is so good that I have listened to it all twice through with mounting pleasure and admiration…’

‘for long term viability, I’d back Tansy Davies’ Musical Pointers (Peter Grahame Woolf), 4 September 2012 piano concerto Nature, which I hope to hear again. In it she envisions the piano as “an enormous Opera for ENO moth, prowling in the undergrowth” ’ Musical Pointers (Peter Grahame Woolf), 2 December 2012

‘Tansy Davies’s piano concerto Nature (brilliantly played by Huw Watkins) gave that satisfying sense of hitting the nail bang on the head.’ The Telegraph (Ivan Hewett), 3 December 2012 PHOTO: TANSY DAVIES © RIKARD ÖSTERLUND

Tansy Davies’s first opera, in collaboration with director Deborah Warner and poet and librettist Nick Drake, is a requiem for the dead of 9/11. It will be produced by English National Opera during their 2014/15 season. More details to follow.

TUNING IN

Martin Suckling

Selected forthcoming performances

discord – meant the impact lingered much longer.’ The Guardian (Kate Molleson), Thursday 6 December

‘Around the basic musical line Suckling wove decorative clouds, which may have been modernistic in colouring, but were expressionistic in essence. It was written with assurance and conciseness, made its point, and was gone. A perfect construction.’ The Herald (Michael Tumelty), 6 December 2012

storm, rose, tiger 24, 26, 27.4.13, Younger Hall, St Andrews University, UK: Scottish Chamber Orchestra/ George Benjamin

Release

(world premiere) 12.5.13, City Halls, Glasgow, UK: BBC Scottish SO/Ilan Volkov

New Work

(world premiere) 18.5.13, Britten Studio, Snape, Suffolk, UK: Pekka Kuusisto/ Peter Gregson

In February postcard number three, Chimes at Midnight, arrived on the ensemble’s stands:

…from Suckling with love Martin Suckling has been writing a series of ‘musical postcards’ for the Scottish Ensemble. These short works are being premiered throughout the ensemble’s 2012/13 season, before being performed as a complete 15-minute collection for strings (43221) in October. The ensemble received its first postcard, entitled In memoriam EMS, last October and performed it to an appreciative audience in Scotland and at the Wigmore Hall:

‘a superb miniature – an atmospheric snapshot of wispy nostalgia glinting through shimmering microtones and haunting tonal allusions.’ The Herald (Kate Molleson), 25 October 2012

‘despite its brevity, it still packed a punch, combining ear-tweaking micro-tonality with intense lyricism.’ The Scotsman (David Kettle), 24 October 2012

‘Suckling has an exciting, distinctive voice and a rigorous ear for detail.’ ‘This miniature packed aural variety and luminosity into its few minutes’ duration. Microtones and harmonics, at the start, create strange tonalities... As it develops, the musical lines interweave independently and ethereally, as if angels had abandoned their pins to dance a Highland reel. Suckling has an exciting, distinctive voice and a rigorous ear for detail.’ The Observer (Fiona Maddocks), 4 November 2012

The second postcard arrived in December with the title Mr Jonathan Morton, His Ground.

‘The piece clocks in at just a couple of minutes, but Suckling’s distilled gestures and striking contrasts – bare against sumptuous, busy against still, solo against group, prime harmonies against PHOTO: MARTIN SUCKLING © MAURICE FOXALL

‘Chimes at Midnight was suitably spine-tingling. Swishing harmonics streaked through the ethereal string textures like meteors, anchored by an everpresent, faint pulsing of the passing seconds.’ The Scotsman (Susan Nickalls), 16 February 2013

‘spine-tingling’ Praise for ‘Candlebird’ recording Suckling’s 25-minute song-cycle, Candlebird, for baritone and ensemble opens a new disc of music on the London Sinfonietta’s own label. The work, which sets poems by Don Paterson, has received praise on every hearing and this recording is no exception:

‘the best reason for hearing this disc… Candlebird is a superbly accomplished cycle... The intertwining of voice and instruments is immaculate, the musical language, in which microtones coexist comfortably with long melodic lines and expressively potent harmony, is utterly surefooted. The Guardian (Andrew Clements), 25 October 2012

Scottish Chamber Orchestra revive ‘storm, rose, tiger’ ‘…engrossing, haunting and self-assured,’ just some of the striking comments that followed the SCO’s premiere of Suckling’s 17-minute orchestral work storm, rose, tiger in 2011. This April the orchestra will revive the piece in a run of Scottish performances with conductor George Benjamin, a one-time teacher of Suckling’s.

Two new works this May May sees the premiere of two important Suckling works. The first, entitled Release, is a major orchestral commission for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conductor Ilan Volkov. The performance takes place at Glasgow’s City Halls as part of the orchestra’s Tectonics festival. The second is a duet for violin and cello, commissioned by Aldeburgh Music for their ‘Faster than Sound’ series. The premiere will be given by violinist Pekka Kuusisto and cellist Peter Gregson.

Selected forthcoming performances

George Benjamin ‘Predicting the future is a tricky business but this music drama is surely here to stay... when today’s composers so often struggle to translate their musical language into convincing theatre, Written on Skin stands out as a notable triumph.’

Into the Little Hill 25. 26.4.13, Calouste Gulbenkian Concert Hall, Lisbon, Portugal: Anu Komsi/Hilary Summers/Gulbenkian Orchestra/ Pedro Neves

Shadowlines

The Times (Neil Fisher), 10 March 2013

12, 14, 15, 16.5.13, Tour, Switzerland: Gilles Vonsattel

‘George Benjamin’s Written on Skin sinks deeply into the psyche… this will be one of the defining operas of the early 21st century... visionary.’

Written on Skin 14, 16, 17.6.13, Theater an der Wien, Vienna, Austria: Wiener Festwochen/Klangforum Wien/ Kent Nagano 23, 25, 27.7.13, Munich, Germany: Bayerischer Staatsoper/ Klangforum Wien/Kent Nagano 12.8.13 Tanglewood, Massachusetts: Boston SO/George Benjamin (USA concert premiere)

Sortilèges/Three Miniatures for Solo Violin/ Piano Figures/ Sonata for Piano/ Viola, Viola/ Three Studies/ Shadowlines 28, 29, 31.7.13, 1, 2.8.13, Messiaen Festival, la Meije, France: Par Markus Bellheim/ Hae-Sun Kang/Marie Vermeulin/ Lise Berthaud/Arnaud Thorette/ Francois-Frederique Guy/Florent Boffard

At First Light 30.7.13, Salzburg Festival, Austria: OENM/Titus Engel

At First Light/ Fantasia VII/Into the Little Hill 3.8.13, Festival Messiaen au Pays de la Meije, Briançon, France: London Sinfonietta/Hila Plitmann/Susan Bickley/George Benjamin

Upon Silence 4.8.13, Messiaen Festival, la Meije, France: SIT FAST

At First Light/ Upon Silence/ Three Inventions for Chamber Orchestra 6, 7.9.13, MITO Festival, Turin and Milan, Italy: London Sinfonietta/George Benjamin

Dance Figures/A Mind of Winter 11, 12.9.13, Auditorium RAI, Turin and Milan, Italy: Filarmonica 900/Gergely Madaras

Palimpsests/Duet/ Ringed by the Flat Horizon 15, 16.9.13, MITO Festival, Turin and Milan, Italy: Pierre-Laurent Aimard/Orchestra del RAI Torino/ George Benjamin

Opera Today (Anne Ozorio), 11 March 2013

TOULOUSE REVIEWS

Rapturous response to ‘Written on Skin’ continues Following the rapturous response to George Benjamin’s opera Written on Skin at its Aix-enProvence premiere last summer, the production began a tour of Europe’s major opera houses (see below). First stop in October was Amsterdam’s De Nederlandse Opera, followed by Théâtre du Capitole, Toulouse in November and London’s Royal Opera House in March (all co-commissioners). On each occasion the press were unanimously glowing in their assessment of this masterful opera, praising its ‘wonderous beauty’ and ‘sensual, harrowing score.’

ROYAL OPERA HOUSE REVIEWS ‘…this is a triumphant work that carves out a unique place in modern opera… Anyone worried about the future of opera should take heart... Written on Skin has two priceless components – a powerful allegorical tale, both medieval and up-to-theminute, couched in librettist Martin Crimp’s terse, poetic prose, and a score that is ultra-sophisticated, subtle and often extremely sensuous, but also capable of the bestial and guttural.’ Financial Times (Andrew Clark), 11 March 2013

‘George Benjamin seems to have come to opera with his genius fully formed. Written on Skin… is nothing short of a triumph. As soon as it had finished, I wanted to hear it again… a musical masterpiece.’

‘The Toulouse public is lucky to say they have heard a masterpiece of contemporary music… Written on Skin has a successful theatrical element thanks to Martin Crimp, a beautiful score by George Benjamin and a remarkable staging by Katie Mitchell and Vicki Mortimer, in short, one of these moments where you feel the history of future music… it will surely be a classic.’ Classiqueinfo.com (Jean-Charles Jobart), 5 December 2012

HOLLAND REVIEWS ‘The piece is of wondrous beauty, a miracle of timbral inventiveness, harmonic and melodic beauty and expressiveness...’ Parool (Erik Voermans), 8 October 2012

‘it carves traces in the soul’ ‘Benjamin’s score is a feast for the ears… it carves traces in the soul and you cannot say that of any other modern opera.’ Newspaper Theatre (Oswin Schneeweisz), 8 October 2012

‘The word Gesamtkunstwerk is usually reserved to invoke the mammoth ambitions of Wagner, but it is also the only suitable way to describe Written on Skin… [which] is no less impressive in stature… The stunning libretto, which uses spare language to reference everything from the Book of Genesis to parking garages, manages to be in every way the equal of Mr. Benjamin’s sensual, harrowing score.’ Wall Street Journal (J.S. Marcus), 18 October 2012

The Guardian (Erica Jeal), 10 March 2013

‘…here is a new opera that is palpably a serious and important work of art, both exquisitely crafted and deeply resonant… Benjamin’s score is intricately woven into the text and story, as though illuminating a manuscript itself... the dramatic tension never slackens and the brutal climaxes are stupendous. This is music of genius… what joy to encounter something as enthralling and enchanting as this.’ The Telegraph (Rupert Christiansen), 10 March 2013 PHOTO: GEORGE BENJAMIN © MAURICE FOXALL

The work now travels to: • Theater an der Wien, Vienna, June 2013 • Bavarian State Opera, Munich, July 2013 • Tanglewood, Massachusetts, August 2013 (concert performance) • Stadttheater Bonn, October 2013 (new production) • Festival d’Automne, Opéra Comique, Paris, November 2013 Further performances are scheduled for 2014 onwards

TUNING IN

Julian Anderson ‘Written on Skin’ premiere recording For a full score to be published within just eight months of the premiere must be a first (see p 27). The same could equally be said of Nimbus Records who have released the premiere recording of Written on Skin in record time. This recording was produced from a broadcast recording by Radio France in July 2012 at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. It features the premiere cast of Christopher Purves (Baritone), Barbara Hannigan (Soprano), Bejun Mehta (Counter-tenor) and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra conducted by George Benjamin. The disc also contains Benjamin’s Duet for Piano and Orchestra, which was performed at the Aix Festival along with Written on Skin. Here on disc it is performed by its dedicatee, pianist Pierre LaurentAimard and conducted by George Benjamin.

Limited editon signed and cased full score of ‘Written on Skin’ now available See p 27 for more details

Wigmore Hall celebrates Benjamin Benjamin occupies centre stage at the Wigmore Hall this spring with several events dedicated to the composer. The celebrations began on 20 March with chamber music by Benjamin and his one-time teacher Alexander Goehr (reviews to follow). They continue on 6 April with a full day of Benjamin events. The first concert reaches back to the composer’s Sonata for violin and piano and Flight for solo flute, both completed in the late 1970s, and casts light on the canonic complexities of Shadowlines, written in 2001 for his friend and fellow Messiaen pupil PierreLaurent Aimard. This is followed in the evening by a performance of Benjamin’s first operatic creation Into the Little Hill (the first complete contemporary opera to be performed at the hall) with soloists Susanna Andersson and Hilary Summers and members of BCMG under Benjamin’s direction. The composer prefaces this final concert with a talk with John Gilhooly about his work, influences and artistic evolution.

Featured composer at Messiaen Festival George Benjamin, a one-time pupil of Messiaen, will be the featured composer at this year’s Messiaen Festival in Pays de la Meije (27 July to 4 August), inspiring their theme ‘The English Garden of Messiaen.’ The festival will include a host of Benjamin’s much-loved chamber works as well as a performance of his opera Into the Little Hill and the ensemble work At First Light with the composer himself conducting the London Sinfonietta.

Selected forthcoming performances Prayer

19.3.13, Wigmore Hall, London: Lawrence Power

String Quartet No 1

15.6.13, Aldeburgh Festival, Aldeburgh Parish Church, UK: Arditti String Quartet/Sound Intermedia

new work

(world premiere) 12.7.13, Royal Albert Hall, London, UK: BBC SO/Sakari Oramo

Book of Hours

(South Korean premiere) 11.10.13, Seoul Arts Centre, South Korea: Seoul PO/Thierry Fischer

World premiere of String Quartet No.1 ‘Light Music’ When it was composed in 1984-5, Julian Anderson’s String Quartet No.1 Light Music was probably the first instrumental example by a British composer of what is now referred to as spectral music. At the time, its performance requirements – rapid microtonal intonation, incomplete irrational time signatures etc. – were deemed to render it unplayable by the main UK performing organizations. Happily that situation has now changed and the 9-minute work receives its world premiere (15 June, Aldeburgh Festival) courtesy of the Arditti Quartet. Fittingly the concert will also include two quartets by Jonathan Harvey, a figure who was also to become an advocate of spectral techniques from the 90’s onwards.

Piano Etudes Nos. 1-4 / The Colour of Pomegranates / The Bearded Lady / Prayer 2.11.13, Wigmore Hall, London, UK: Cédric Tiberghien/Mark Simpson/Andras Keller/Nicholas Collon/Claire Booth/Aurora Orchestra/Paul Silverthorne/ Adam Walker

Tiramisu / The Comedy of Change / Another Prayer ### 2.11.13, Wigmore Hall, London, UK: Aurora Orchestra/Nicholas Collon/Andras Keller

The Stations of the Sun

7.12.13, Royal Festival Hall, London, UK: London PO/Vladimir Jurowski

Wigmore Hall Residency Julian Anderson has been appointed the Wigmore Hall’s second ever composer in residence. His tenure will begin with a Julian Anderson day on 2 November 2013 and will continue over the following few seasons. During that time the Hall will commission a number of new chamber works from Anderson, including a string quartet, a piece for solo guitar and other works to be announced.

‘The Discovery of Heaven’ wins South Bank Award We are delighted that Julian Anderson’s orchestral piece The Discovery of Heaven has won a prestigious 2013 South Bank Sky Arts Award. These awards celebrate the very best of British culture and Anderson’s piece beat off stiff competition in the classical music category. The Discovery of Heaven (22 mins) was co-commissioned by the New York PO and the London PO, with whom Anderson is composer in residence. It was premiered by the LPO in 2012 with critics praising its vivid colour – ‘the score sounds like the work of a 21st-century Debussy’ – and urging for repeat performances – ‘We need a second and third performance – quickly, please.’ A CD of the work will be released on the LPO’s label later this year. PHOTO: JULIAN ANDERSON © MAURICE FOXALL

Selected forthcoming performances

Colin Matthews

Movements for a Clarinet Concerto

BASCA award for ‘No Man’s Land’

25.4.13, City Halls, Glasgow, UK: Olli Leppäniemi/BBC Scottish SO/ Joshua Weilerstein 25.4.13, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, UK: Lynsey Marsh/ Hallé Orchestra/Andrew Manze

Suns Dance

26.4.13, Royal College of Music, Concert Hall, London, UK: RCM New Perspectives/Tim Lines

Debussy: Minstrels / Les collines d’Anacapri / Bruyères / Ce qu’a vu le Vent d’Ouest / La cathédrale engloutie

5, 7.5.13, Marin Veteran’s Auditorium, San Rafael, USA: Marin SO/Alasdair Neale

Movements for a Clarinet Concerto

9, 10, 14.5.13, Lapua Cathedral, Finland: Mikk Murdvee/ Ylioppilaskunnan Soittajat

Suns Dance

9.5.13, St Gregory’s Centre, Canterbury, UK: RCM New Perspectives/Tim Lines

Movements for a Clarinet Concerto 4.6.13, Recital Hall, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, CA, USA: Alasdair Neale/San Francisco Conservatory

Horn Concerto

15.6.13, Aldeburgh Festival, Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Suffolk, UK: Richard Watkins/ CBSO/Ilan Volkov

Three Interludes

18.6.13, Aldeburgh Festival, Britten Studio, Snape, UK: BCMG

Grand Barcarolle 26.6.13, MediaCityUK, Manchester, UK: BBC PO/Clark Rundell

Nowhere to hide (world premiere) 5.7.13, Cheltenham Festival, Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham, UK: William Howard Trio

Turning Point

29.7.13, Royal Albert Hall, London, UK: BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Thomas Sondergard

Movements for a Clarinet Concerto 21.9.13, Australian National Academy of Music, Melbourne, Australia: Australian National Academy of Music/Paul Dean

25, 26.9.13, Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto, Canada: Joaquin Valdepeñas/Toronto SO/ Peter Oundjian

No Man’s Land, Colin Matthews’s haunting evocation of World War I, took the vocal category prize at the 2012 British Composer Awards in December. Scored for tenor, baritone and chamber orchestra, the 27-minute piece sets a speciallywritten text by Christopher Reid which conjures the ghosts of two of two soldiers hanging on barbed wire. At its BBC Proms premiere in 2011, with Ian Bostridge, Roderick Williams and the City of London Sinfonia, the work was heralded as ‘strikingly atmospheric’, filled with ‘deeply affecting compassion’ and yet ‘darkly humorous.’ The BASCA judges agreed and found the winning work tackled its subject with ‘sensitivity, inventiveness and originality, employing a fascinatingly wide range of colours and techniques to convey a powerful and moving message.’

‘Colin Matthew’s No Man’s Land – a musical response to new poems about the old subject of World War I – is a piece of striking worth and a distinctly worthy winning of the Vocal category.’ The Telegraph (Michael White), 10 December 2012

…and its USA premiere In January No Man’s Land was performed at the Julliard School, New York. The piece was a highlight in its 2013 Focus Festival exploring British contemporary music.

‘...No Man’s Land, a compelling 25-minute work for two male singers and large ensemble… Though the music viscerally depicts the bleakness of the imagery through grating instrumental writing and piercing harmonies, Mr. Matthews deftly folds in elements of music-hall tunes and ditties, accompanied by an ensemble including a tinny upright piano… This was a strong start to what should be a revelatory festival.’

Quartet No.4 premiered by Elias Quartet It has often been commented that Colin Matthews mixes styles and genres like no other and his latest string quartet, No.4, is no exception. The sevenmovement work (although a succinct 16 minutes) references styles as disparate as the habanera and spectral music and traces an arc form, with quick outer movements surrounding a still centre. The piece, which is dedicated to Matthews’s brother David, was premiered at the Wigmore Hall last November in a stunning performance by the Elias Quartet.

‘As in his second and third quartets Matthews incorporates various musical genres: a quasibarcarolle rhythm in the ‘Andante’, and in an absolutely original and compelling way with the pizzicato chorale sequences at the end of the ‘Esitando’ section marked ‘Solenne’. Matthews creates a wonderful tone with his ‘Menuetto spettrale’ in the ‘Allegretto’ just before the coda. It is a kind of spectrality which is both illusive, New York Times (Anthony Tommasini), 27 January 2013 undecided, but also radiantly clear in texture... Overall I had the impression here of a wonderful ‘this strong, moving fantasy and its images were range of contrasting themes ideas/styles which what remained with the listener. Both text and were contained in an incredibly musical idiom recall the economic compositional form/ powerful exchange of the ‘No Man’s Land’ score structure.’ dead soldiers at the end published Seen and Heard International (Geoff Diggines), of Britten’s War Requiem… The full score of No Man’s Land 19 November 2012 it also recalls Vaughan has just been published and is A second performance of the Williams’ Dona Nobis available to buy from quartet was given by the young Pacem... Intensely lyrical www.fabermusicstore.com Gildas Quartet at the Purcell Room and evocative of place, ISBN: 0571537561 Price: £24.99 in January. This formed part of a day time, and the soldiers’ of Park Lane Group events in which shared past, it alternates Colin Matthews was the featured between the captain’s composer. stinging meditations and the ‘an impressive piece launched sergeant’s “scraps of song by a gruff cello solo. If over and wisps of rhyme”…’ the music’s course one might MusicalAmerica.com (Leslie Kandell), reference to Bartók, Webern 30 January 2013 (Five Movements, Opus 5) and PHOTO: COLIN MATTHEWS RECEIVEING BASCA AWARD © MARK ALLAN

TUNING IN

John Woolrich Britten (String Quartet No.3), Colin Matthews is also his own man, and the pivotal fourth movement is particularly beautiful and hushed; transporting.’

Three Songs for alto and six viols

1.3.13, Auditorio Nacional de Madrid, Spain: Michael Chance/ Fretwork

A Farewell

Classical Source (Colin Anderson), 7 January 2013

7.3.13, The Forge, Camden, London, United Kingdom: Jacquin Trio

Matthews/Britten ‘Movements for a Clarinet Concerto’ takes off In 1941 Benjamin Britten began composing a clarinet concerto for the legendary jazz clarinettist Benny Goodman, but he never finished the piece. It lay untouched until 2007 when Colin Matthews (who worked as an assistant to Britten) composed two new movements, using other Britten material contemporary with the clarinet concerto sketches, to complete the work. The completed work (17 mins) was premiered in 2008 by celebrated clarinettist Michael Collins and the Northern Sinfonia. Since then its popularity has steadily grown and in the 2012/13 season alone it will have been performed 11 times. Forthcoming performances include BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with clarinettist Olli Leppäniemi in Glasgow on 25 April. Remarkably on the same date it will be performed in Manchester with the Hallé Orchestra and their principle clarinet Lynsey Marsh. In May the work reaches Finland courtesy of the Helsinki University Symphony Orchestra, and finally jumps the Atlantic in September when the Toronto Symphony Orchestra perform the work with clarinetist Joaquin Valdepeñas.

A piano trio offers ‘Nowhere to hide’ The Schubert Ensemble has commissioned Matthews to write a new work to celebrate their 30th Anniversary, to be premiered on 5 July at the Cheltenham Music Festival. The resulting piano trio, Nowhere to hide, takes its title from a chance remark Matthews made to John Adams about the problems of writing piano trios, ‘nowhere to hide’ came the response. Matthews explains more: ‘It is no easy ensemble to write for, in the first place because John Adams is quite right; but also because there is such a distinguished body of work in existence... What became the first movement took me a long time to write. And I was not entirely sure of the direction that the rest of the work was going to take when the news of Elliott Carter’s death in November 2012 made me put the trio aside and write a little Berceuse for piano in his memory. This unanticipated music became the basis of the second movement, and also influenced the mood of the fourth. The third movement takes over the brief scherzo-like episodes from the elaborate structure of the first movement (which is as long as the other three movements combined) to provide a lightning-fast ‘Scherzino.’

Selected forthcoming performance

It is midnight, Dr Schweitzer

13.3.13, Dukes Hall, Royal Academy of Music, United Kingdom: RAM String Orchestra/ Jo Cole

Elegiac Arabesques / Tema Sacher / In the Mirrors of Asleep / Three Interludes

‘Envoi’ in New York The Julliard School’s Focus Festival this January was centred on British Music since WWII and offered recognition of Britain’s extraordinary compositional talent. The festival featured John Woolrich’s Envoi, an 8-minute concertante for viola and six mostly soft and dark instruments (alto flute, bass clarinet, marimba, log drums…).

‘John Woolrich’s Envoi (‘Taking Flight’) is a pensive and ethereal memorial piece for a friend, scored for solo viola (here the excellent Meredith Treaster) and an ensemble of six players’ New York Times (Anthony Tommasini), 27 January 2013

Woolrich to add variation to ‘Sellinger’s Round’ The history of Sellinger’s Round is an interesting one. Originally an Irish dance tune, it was harmonised for the keyboard by William Byrd. Centuries later in 1952, Benjamin Britten came upon the idea to use it as the basis for a set of variations for string orchestra, to be written collaboratively by six of the finest composers of the day: Lennox Berkeley, Arthur Oldham, Humphrey Searle, Michael Tippett, William Walton and Britten himself. This year John Woolrich will add his own name to that illustrious list of composers, following a commission to produce his own variation to add to the set. The updated set will be performed by the English Chamber Orchestra on 24 August.

18.6.13, Aldeburgh Festival, Britten Studio, Snape, United Kingdom: BCMG

Pianobook VIII 20.6.13, The Warehouse, London, United Kingdom: Stephen Gutman

new work: Sellinger’s Round

(world premiere) 24.8.13, Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom: English Chamber Orchestra

Ulysses Awakes 25.9.13, Bradford upon Avon, United Kingdom: Clare Finnimore/Britten Sinfonia

26.9.13, Castle Howard, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom: Clare Finnimore/Britten Sinfonia 29.9.13, Colchester, United Kingdom: Clare Finnimore/ Britten Sinfonia

60th birthday in 2014 John Woolrich celebrates his 60th birthday in 2014 and a number of events are being planned to celebrate his illustrious career so far. If you are interested in marking this occasion and would like to find out more, please contact: promotion@fabermusic.com.

13 PHOTO: JOHN WOOLRICH © MAURICE FOXALL

Selected forthcoming performances

Thomas Adès ***** Classical Music Magazine, Editors Choice

Concerto Conciso/ Life Story

‘a fascinating, generous recital… [including] the CD premiere of a characteristically eclectic, brilliant piece’

11.4.13, Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre, Melbourne, Australia: Hila Plitmann/Melbourne SO/ Thomas Adès

Classical Music Magazine, 6 October 2012

Three Studies from Couperin/Concerto for Violin

‘Lieux retrouvés... a four-movement sonata whose figuration and part-writing knock at the door of the complex to seek the visionary.’

(Norwegian premiere) 11.4.13, Store Studio, Oslo, Norway: Norwegian Radio Orchestra/Andrew Manze

The Sunday Times (Paul Driver), 30 September 2012

Scenes from The Tempest/Tevot

‘Lieux retrouvés weaves its own mesmeric spell to complete one of the most affecting and intriguing recitals of cello music to have appeared for some considerable time… here is some of the most enjoyable and readily accessible contemporary music you’re likely to encounter.’

15.4.13, Hamer Hall, Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne SO /Hila Plitmann/Gerard Quinn/Penelope Mills/Thomas Adès

Chamber Symphony 16.4.13, Zipper Concert Hall, Colburn School of Performing Arts, Los Angeles, CA, USA: Colburn School of Performing Arts/Edward Hong

Dances from Powder Her Face 16, 18, 19, 20.4.13, Tour, Germany: Neue Lausitzer Philharmonie/Ulrich Kern 20.4.13, Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre, Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne SO/Thomas Adès

Asyla 25, 26.4.13, Gewandhaus, Leipzig, Germany: Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig/David Zinman

Polaris 1, 2.5.13, Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, NSW, Australia: Sydney SO/Thomas Adès

Concerto for Violin 2.5.13, Galica Hall, Santiago de Compostela, Spain: Pekka Kuusisto /Real Filarmonia de Galicia/ Paul Daniel

Dances from Powder Her Face 2, 4, 5.5.13, Atlanta Symphony Hall, Atlanta, GA, USA: Atlanta SO/ Hugh Wolff

Darknesse Visible 8, 9, 14, 15, 23.5.13, Tour, UK: Richard Alston Dance Company

Three Studies from Couperin 30.5.13, Auckland Town Hall, New Zealand: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra/Garry Walker

Powder Her Face 7, 9, 12, 14, 16.6.13, Kimmel Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA: Opera Company of Philadelphia Darknesse Visible 14.6.13, Aldeburgh Festival, Aldeburgh Church, Suffolk, UK: Lorenzo Soules

Totentanz

(world premiere) 17.7.13, Royal Albert Hall, London, UK: Christianne Stotijn/Simon Keenlyside/BBC SO/Thomas Adès

BASCA Award for ‘The Four Quarters’ The British Composer Awards highlight the very best of British music and in 2012 Adès’s string quartet The Four Quarters took the chamber prize, his second BASCA award. The work – commissioned by the Carnegie Hall and premiered there by the Emerson Quartet in 2011 – charts the arc of a single day across four movements. The judges were unanimous in their decision and their citation is unequivocal: ‘For the sheer elegance and poise of the composition, the eloquence and certainty of its expression and the real sense of chamber music at its heart.’

International Record Review (Michael Jameson), November 2012

World premiere of ‘Totentanz’

A new work by Adès is always eagerly anticipated, especially one as substantial and important as Totentanz promises to be. The BBC SO under the composer’s own baton brings the work to the public in July, with baritone and mezzo soloists Simon Keenlyside and Christine Stoijn. Totentanz lasts around 40 minutes and was a commission from Robin Boyle in memory of Witold Lutosławski (1913-1994) and his wife, Danuta. The piece is a setting of the anonymous text 5 stars for ‘Lieux retrouvés’ CD that appeared under a fifteenth-century frieze in the ‘I don’t know why it is,’ says Thomas Adès, ‘that Marienkirche, Lübeck which was later destroyed by the cello of all instruments makes one dream of bombing in World War Two. As Adès writes: “Elsewhere”... Perhaps because the colours are so ‘The frieze depicted members of every category rich and wide-ranging, one can dream and find of human society in strictly descending order of oneself in a different place.’ This is inspiration behind Lieux retrouvés (or ‘Places Revisited’), Adès’s status, from the Pope to a baby. In-between each 15-minute work for cello and piano, written in 2009 human figure is an image of Death, dancing and inviting the humans to join him. In this setting, for cellist Steven Isserlis. The piece is the title work each of the humans in turn is represented by a low on a new Hyperion disc featuring Isserlis and Adès soprano, and Death by a baritone.’ (as pianist); a recording that has won them much The work has already been programmed again acclaim: at the Warsaw Festival on 28 September 2013. ***** BBC Music Magazine, Chamber Choice

‘As if Adès’s composing and conducting skills were each not exceptional enough, he continues to grace the musical world with his piano playing as well… Lieux retrouvés [is] written with Adès’s unerring skill…’ BBC Music Magazine (Malcolm Hayes), December 2012

Recording of the Month, Gramophone Magazine

‘the highlight is the first recording of Adès’s own Lieux retrouvés... [it] steps aside from the relatively lush sonorities and expansive designs of such recent orchestral works as Tevot and Polaris to revisit the concentrated allusiveness and memorably disconcerting blend of the ironic and the nostalgic that distinguish some of his earlier chamber pieces.’ Gramophone Magazine (Arnold Whittall), December 2012 PHOTO: THOMAS ADÈS © BRIAN VOCE REPRODUCTION OF ‘TOTENTANZ’ FRIEZE, MARIENKIRCHE, LÜBECK

TUNING IN

Jonathan Harvey

Selected forthcoming performance

Jonathan Harvey died peacefully at his home in Lewes on 4 December 2012, after suffering from a long terminal illness of the central nervous system. He will be sorely missed by all those who knew him, and all those whom his music touched, but he leaves behind an extraordinary legacy and some of the most remarkable pieces of our time. (Please see back cover for tributes to Jonathan Harvey.)

Death of Light, Light of Death 15.4.13, Dampfzentrale Bern, Switzerland: Ensemble Proton 16.4.13, Freiburg Konzerthaus, Germany: Ensemble Recherche

Come Holy Ghost/ Forms of Emptiness 25.4.13, St Martin-in-thefield, London, UK: New London Chamber Choir

ISM Lifetime Achievement Award In September the Incorporated Society of Musicians presented an ISM Lifetime Achievement Award to Harvey, the first time that such an award had been given. On accepting the award, Harvey said: ‘I am overjoyed to receive the incredible honour of an ISM Lifetime Achievement Award which is one of the greatest honours of my life. Whilst I have received awards for individual pieces, they have had a competitive aspect to them...this award is an acceptance from a whole community of musicians for which I feel very deeply honoured.’ ISM Chief Executive Deborah Annetts added: ‘This award is presented to acknowledge that Jonathan has created a different way of speaking, and provided a fundamentally different way of hearing the world, through music.’

Harvey tribute day at Aldeburgh Festival Many organisations are planning memorial events for Jonathan Harvey, not least among these is the Aldeburgh Festival which will pay tribute to Harvey in a series of concerts and events on 15 June. The day begins with an afternoon performance of Harvey’s second and fourth String Quartets given by seasoned Harvey-performers the Arditti Quartet. These profound quartets explore Harvey’s unique string writing, introducing sounds and techniques which at the time they were written were unimaginable. This will be followed by a discussion event where contributors, including Julian Anderson, Ilan Volkov and Barrie Gavin, share their appreciation of Harvey’s life and music, as a prelude to a performance of his iconic electronic work, Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco. The day finishes with the UK premiere of Harvey’s Zen-inspired orchestral work 80 Breaths from Tokyo, which, Harvey explains, ‘is partly the result of the practice of Zen breathing, and partly the result of listening to slow music and enjoying its power over the mind and body.’ The performance will be given by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and conductor Ilan Volkov, a great champion of Harvey’s music.

…and the UK premiere of ‘Plainsongs for Peace and Light’

Chant 27.4.13, The Victorian Vaults, London, UK: London Contemporary Orchestra Soloists

String Trio 4.5.13, Allerheiligen-Hofkirche, Germany: Soloists from the Bayerischen Rundfunks

the choir will perform Harvey’s The Angels, The Annunciation, Marahi and The Summer Cloud’s Awakening. The day after, they will give the UK premiere of Harvey’s last work Plainsongs for Peace and Light, a fitting close to a life that was so filled with spirituality.

US premiere of the mystical ‘Sringara Chaconne’ In January Harvey’s ensemble work Sringara Chaconne was premiered in the US as part of the Julliard School’s Focus Festival exploring British contemporary music. The 12-minute mystical chaconne is one of Harvey’s best-loved and quintessential works.

‘Harvey increasingly seems the Messiaen of British music’ ‘As Mr Harvey wrote of the piece, Sringara is an Indian rasa, a flavor or mood “signifying a love essence”... The recurring figure in Mr Harvey’s chaconne is a series of four delicate chords, hazy and elusive sonorities with shimmering sustained tones, oscillating inner voices and rippling figures on the piano. The chords recur in countless guises and transformations to produce a meditative piece with passages of restless activity. It was fascinating for me to hear this modest and miraculous score after having attended the British premiere of Mr Harvey’s Weltethos, an 85-minute oratorio, last summer, performed by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Mr Harvey increasingly seems the Messiaen of British music.’ New York Times (Anthony Tommasini), 27 January 2013

Whilst the Aldeburgh tribute day will offer a chance to explore Harvey’s impact on the string quartet, ‘Sustained high woodwinds, with strings, piano, electronic and orchestral genres, his major influence marimba, and rattle, produce a glassy, peacefully on choral music will also be remembered at the celestial mood.’ festival with two concerts of his choral music given MusicalAmerica.com (Leslie Kandell), 30 January 2013 by the renowned Latvian Radio Choir. On 8 June, in a programme entitled ‘Angels in Blythburgh,’ PHOTO: JONATHAN HARVEY © MAURICE FOXALL

Soleil Noir/Chitra/ Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco 14.5.13, Mozart Saal, Alte Oper, Frankfurt, Germany: Ensemble Modern Frankfurt/Stefan Asbury

Bird Concerto with Pianosong 17.5.13, Concertgebouw Brugge, Belgium: de Filharmonie/Edo de Waart

The Summer Cloud’s Awakening 18.5.13, Brugge Concertgebouw, Belgium: Latvian Radio Choir/ Kaspars Putnins

Sringara Chaconne 19.5.13, Mozartsaal, Prague, Czech Republic: Ensemble Intercontemporain/Enno Poppe

Wagner Dream 6, 8, 12.6.13, Wales Cardiff and Birmingham, UK: Welsh National Opera/Nicholas Collon

The Angels/The Annunciation/ Marahi/The Summer Cloud’s Awakening 8.6.13, Blythburgh Church, Blythburgh, Suffolk, UK: Latvian Radio Choir/Carl Faia/Kaspar Putnins

Plainsongs for Peace and Light

(UK premiere) 9.6.13, Aldeburgh Festival, Orford Church, Suffolk, UK: New London Children’s Choir/Latvian Radio Choir

String Quartet No 4 15.6.13, Aldeburgh Festival, Aldeburgh Parish Church, UK: Arditti String Quartet/Sound Intermedia

80 Breaths for Tokyo

15.6.13, Aldeburgh Festival, Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Suffolk, UK: CBSO/Ilan Volkov/ Richard Watkins

Selected forthcoming performances

Oliver Knussen of the Symphony No 3… the Horn Concerto, [is] probably the most beautiful score that exists for the instrument. Saturday brought Knussen’s double bill of operas… Netia Jones’s staging mixes live action with the animation of Sendak’s drawings to joyful effect… and Knussen’s music sparkled.’

Hums and Songs of Winnie the Pooh

11.4.13, Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre, Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne SO/Thomas Adès

Whitman Settings (orchestral) / Violin Concerto

The Guardian (Erica Jeal), 5 November 2012

12.4.13, Boston Symphony Hall, Boston, MA, USA: Claire Booth/ Pinchas Zukerman/Boston SO/ Oliver Knussen

‘simply breath-taking’

Symphony No 2

14.4.13, Boston, USA: Boston Modern Orchestra Project/Gil Rose

Hums and Songs of Winnie the Pooh/Ophelia Dances Book 1/ Requiem/Songs without Voices 18.4.13, Miller Theatre, Columbia University, NY, USA: Brad Lubman/Ensemble Signal

Secret Psalm

27.4.13, The Victorian Vaults, London, UK: London Contemporary Orchestra Soloists

Elegiac Arabesques

18.6.13, Aldeburgh Festival, Britten Studio, Snape, UK: BCMG

The Way to Castle Yonder 21.6.13, Pickaquoy Centre, Kirkwall, UK: BBC SO/Alexander Vedernikov

‘Total Immersion’ sparks chorus of praise Oliver Knussen’s 60th birthday celebrations continued in November with a wide retrospective of his distinguished oeuvre as part of the BBC and Barbican’s ‘Oliver Knussen: Total Immersion’ Festival. Performances included a double bill of his celebrated ‘fantasy’ operas Where the Wild Things Are and Higglety Pigglety Pop!, based on stories by the late Maurice Sendak, as well as concerts of Knussen’s chamber and orchestral works. From the audience’s rapturous applause, the critics’ chorus of praise, and the sheer number of composers present, it was clearer than ever that Knussen’s place is at the very heart of contemporary music.

‘…without Knussen Britain’s musical landscape would have been infinitely poorer… If ever there was a case for putting contemporary opera into commercial rep, this double-bill is it… it would be a hit. But that was only the appetiser. What followed [was] delivered by a plethora of excellent young singers and instrumentalists, and sometimes conducted by Knussen like a great bear casting spells… Knussen’s trademarks are a pellucid transparency, and a sense of the unerring rightness of every note in constructions of dazzling intricacy: of all the composers now working in Britain, his is the sound-world I would most happily inhabit.’ The Independent (Michael Church), 5 November 2012

‘…without Knussen Britain’s musical landscape would have been infinitely poorer…’ ‘What emerged was Knussen’s joy in sonority, whether in the sparse, dark shades of Autumnal; in the fizzle and pop of Flourish with Fireworks, the orchestral concert opener; or in the glinting harp, celesta and guitar offsetting the rich scoring 16 PHOTO: OLIVER KNUSSEN © MAURICE FOXALL

‘If sheer native talent is our yardstick for ranking British musicians, Oliver Knussen must stand among the highest of any century... As for his own music, at the level of craftsmanship it’s simply breath-taking… So much of the music we heard was in the form of brilliant musical jewel-boxes, packed full of perfectly heard bright sonorities. Memories of other music flitted across its surface; Ravel’s childhood fantasies, Stravinsky’s Russian fantasies… Later ravishing orchestral sonorities, drenched in horn incandescence and tinkling celeste and harp were added to harmonic gorgeousness.’ The Telegraph (Ivan Hewett), 6 November 2012

‘In his love of detail, playfulness and precision, Knussen shares the same aesthetic terrain as Mozart and Ravel. Knussen’s output is sparse, each piece entering the world with butterfly brilliance… Does this relative paucity matter? I suspect not. Knussen’s Symphony No.3 is one of the most frequently performed worldwide… The Horn Concerto, too, is a contemporary classic…’ The Observer (Fiona Maddocks), 11 November 2012

‘A Knussen work infallibly rings true… I have heard the ones in the Sunday concerts many times, but their freshness, their tactile, reasoned and intricate quality, remains indelible…’ The Sunday Times (Paul Driver), 11 November 2012

Retrospective CDs are a‘tribute to one of the greatest contemporary composers’ In 2012, Knussen’s 60th birthday year, NMC released two retrospective CDs of his music. These include a wide range of early and more recent works, many not previously recorded, which give a fascinating picture of Knussen’s musical evolution over more than three decades.The first disc features two major works of the 1970s - Symphony No 2, a song cycle on texts of Georg Trakl and Sylvia Plath, and Symphony No 3, a symphonic poem about Shakespeare’s Ophelia. The second disc starts with the brooding orchestral Choral, and the poetic Autumnal for violin (both written in the 1970s), and runs through to a live Proms recording of his Violin Concerto (2002), Requiem: Songs for Sue (2006) and Ophelia’s Last Dance from 2010. Rave reviews have poured in:

TUNING IN

‘this disc is an enthralling tribute to one of the greatest of contemporary composers… [it] offers us contemporary music to swoon over. You’d do worse than to start with the Violin Concerto, its elegiac central Aria packing an incredible punch. Ghostly echoes of other slow movements flicker past over a five minute span, without making any concessions to accessibility… The other orchestral piece is the lurching, processional Choral, full of arresting, subterranean sonorities. The transparent, richly harmonised close contrasts with the Ivesian murk heard at the start.’ The Arts Desk (Graham Rickson), 1 December 2012

‘It begins with the orchestral Choral, completed when he was 20 and full of echoes of Scriabin and early Stravinsky, and ends with the gorgeous piano piece Ophelia’s Last Dance (with more Scriabinesque touches), first performed two years ago.. the main works date from the last decade: the wondrously supple 2002 Violin Concerto and the understated, eloquent Requiem: Songs for Sue... the music ranks among the finest composed in this country in recent decades.’ The Guardian (Andrew Clements), 27 September 2012

‘the music ranks among the finest composed in this country in recent decades’ ‘Choral is a concentrated yet eventful procession whose overlapping layers of woodwind, brass and strings build up a dense and increasingly volatile texture derived from four chords which are finally sounded as a hieratic chorale. A fine example of Knussen’s orchestral mastery… it makes a startling contrast with Autumnal – an elegantly contrasted diptych… the Whitman Settings embodies some of Knussen’s most vivd and immediate expression… this [is an] impressive and desirable release.’ International Record Review (Richard Whitehouse), November 2012

Portrait concert in New York Knussen’s major influence in America will be celebrated this spring with a portrait concert at New York’s Miller Theatre on 18th April. Ensemble Signal and conductor Brad Lubman will perform some of Knussen’s most popular ensemble and chamber works including Requiem:Songs for Sue, Songs without Voices and Ophelia Dances, Book 1.

Francisco Coll

Selected forthcoming performances

Spanish premiere of ‘Piedras’

Sguardo verso l’interno

Francisco Coll’s glittering ensemble showpiece Piedras (or ‘Stones’) has already had a distinguished performance history. It was premiered in 2011 at LA’s Walt Disney Concert Hall by the LA Philharmonic New Music Group. Later that year it was performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall London by the London Sinfonietta with the press championing its ‘sophisticated and daring soundscape’ and ‘brilliantly focused musical images.’ In December 2012 it received its Spanish premiere in Coll’s home town of Valencia with the Grup Mix Tour and conductor Pablo Rus. The 15-minute work is highly recommended to any ensemble seeking to expand its repertoire.

29.4.13, Wigmore Hall, London, UK: Park Lane Group

Melisma

(world premiere) 20.6.13, Festspiele Mecklenburg Vorpommern, Germany: Duo Kang Kusnezow

new work

2.8.13, Croatia: London Sinfonietta

Clarinet quintet to be performed at Wigmore Hall Following several performances in 2011 (at the Aldeburgh, Aix-en-Provence and Verbier festivals), Coll’s clarinet quintet Sguardo verso l’interno (‘Look Inward’) reaches London’s Wigmore Hall on 29 April in a performance by Park Lane Group artists the Benyounes Quartet and Harry Cameron-Penny (clarinet).

SWR Synphony Orchestra record ‘Hidd’n Blue’ Coll’s 6-minute Hidd’n Blue is a perfect concert opener; it is ‘3D music for a virtuoso orchestra’ says Coll. The critically-acclaimed work was premiered in 2012 by the London Symphony Orchestra and has recently been recorded by the SWR Symphony Orchestra. It will be broadcast on German radio at a future date.

Violin & piano commission Violin and piano duo Byol Kang and Boris Kusnezow (Borletti-Buitoni Artists) have commissioned Coll to write a new short work – entitled Melisma – for inclusion on their upcoming CD ‘Life in the Mirror of Music’. The CD programme– which also includes music by Beethoven, Grieg and Brahms – has been conceived as a ‘life story’ from youth and passion, to death and retrospect. Coll’s fast and dramatic work is designed to reflect hectic adulthood. The world premiere will be given at Festspiele Mecklenburg Vorpommern on 20 June, and will be followed by several performances around Germany.

New Opera for 2014/15 Further confirmation of Francisco Coll’s growing reputation has come with the announcement that he has been commissioned to write a chamber opera for performance at Aldeburgh, Opera North and the Linbury Studio, Royal Opera House in the 2014/15 season. The new work, c.40 mins, will be based on short texts by Kafka, adapted by distinguished librettist Meredith Oakes.

Selected forthcoming performances

Carl Vine ‘an extremely likable new piano concerto... enjoyably rhapsodic. This first movement essays various moods and engenders various musical analogies: a mixture of Rachmaninovian chords and Prokofievesque precociousness to start, then a touch of French Impressionism with a wealth of lovely orchestral interplay. This is a tonal and approachable mix, Vine displaying a deft ear for timbre... [the finale] is not all fast music and can suddenly melt into a melodious languor, before picking up speed again to a thrilling close.’

Pipe Dreams

12.7.13, QSO Studio, South Bank, Brisbane, QLD, Australia: Hayley Radke/Queensland SO/ Sarah-Grace Williams

Celebrare Celeberrime

31.8, 1.9.13, Ravenswood Centenary Centre, NSW, Australia: Ku-Ring-Gai Philharmonic/Ron Prussing/Philip Shovk

Classical Source (Nick Breckenfield), 17 October 2012

‘a wealth of lovely orchestral interplay’ Complete string quartets released on CD Bleak midwinter to Sydney sun Each year King’s College Cambridge commissions a new work for its world-renowned Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. In 2012 the college branched out further than normal and approached Australian Carl Vine. The resulting carol, a 4-minute work entitled Ring Out, Wild Bells for SSAATTB, sets poetry by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the Victorian poet laureate. As Vine explains: ‘I like the idea of a non-denominational poem. It so nicely encapsulates the broader aspects of Christmas without dealing explicitly with the nativity... It is part of the process of my musical language. I believe in melodies that you can sing and that actually quite explicitly seek community... For the modernists it is all about novelty and very little else. It is an incredibly barren aesthetic... [For me] there is room for all sorts, from new works to the classics like King Wenceslas or Once in Royal David’s City, which has a simple tune but is incredibly moving.”

UK premiere of ‘ravishing’ Second Piano Concerto

ABC Classics has released a new CD of Vines’s complete string quartets performed by Australia’s premiere quartet the Goldners. The album includes quartets 2 to 5, and a selection of movements from the first quartet, “Knips Suite”. It offers the first commercial recording of the later, as well as of the second and fifth quartets. Vine’s music for string quartet spans nearly three decades, so acts as an album of snapshots that document the development of his musical language.

‘Carl Vine has always been suave. From his early dance scores in the 1970s to his larger orchestral works of the ‘80s onwards, his music has remained assured, tuneful and immaculately crafted… This disc brings together the bulk of his quartets to date… Effortlessly written yet tightly constructed, from the outset they offered a compelling alternative to the dominant avant-garde movement of the time… Vine’s quartets are fluent and breezily contemporary, alternately muscular and sensitive, passionate and urbane.’ Limelight Magazine (Julian Day), March 2013

‘Effortlessly written yet tightly constructed’

In October Vine’s Second Piano Concerto arrived on British shores following its world premiere with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. At the UK performance First recording of ‘Pipe Dreams’ co-comissioner the London Philharmonic Orchestra BIS Records has released the first recording of Vine’s was joined by pianist Piers Lane in a polished concerto for flute and strings, Pipe Dreams. The rendition of this vibrant new work. work was commissioned by the Australian CO, who ‘Vine’s work is consistently pleasant on the ear, perform it on the new disc with stunning Israeli and its formal structure is easy to follow: three flautist, Sharon Bezaly. As Vine writes, a basic idea movements give different moods (Rhapsody, for the work is ‘the folly that a flute might harbour Nocturne and “Cloudless Blue”), and within each its own secret wishes. In a universe where all is possible, what might a flute dream?’ movement is its own structure of different phases,

each movement a little concerto in itself... [a] memorable moment was a rare chance to shine for the tuba. Some of the slow passages, particularly in the second movement Nocturne, were ravishing. It’s a work I’d happily see again…’ 18

One Stop Arts (David Karlin), 18 October 2012 PHOTO: CARL VINE © KAREN STEAINS

‘Five Bagatelles’ accompany Tolstoy In February/March a selection of Vine’s Five Bagatelles for piano were used as incidental music to a dramatisation of Tolstoy’s Kreutzer Sonata, with acclaimed actor Barry Otto, at the Adelaide Festival.

TUNING IN

Torsten Rasch

Selected forthcoming performances

…along with premiere of concert suite The same orchestra will also perform a new 27-minute concert suite from the opera, entitled The House of Temperaments, in Chemnitz on 17 & 18 April. ‘The suite,’ says Rasch, ‘is based on John Webster’s idea of modeling the main characters of his play after the 4 humors or temperaments (the Duchess: sanguine, Ferdinand: choleric, Bosola: melancholic and the Cardinal: phlegmatic). There is an introduction and 4 movements, each depicting one of the characters using themes from the opera.’

The Duchess of Malfi

6, 20, 26.4, 5.5, 8.6.13, Die Theater, Chemnitz, Germany: Die Theater Chemnitz/c.Frank Beermann/d.Dietrich W. Hilsdorf

Das Haus der Temperamente

17.4.13, Städtische Theater, Chemnitz, Germany: Robert Schumann Philharmonie Chemnitz/Frank Beermann

Songs for Three Choirs Festival

Blood-soaked opera to receive German premiere When Torsten Rasch’s opera The Duchess of Malfi was first staged in 2010 by ENO and innovative theatre company Punchdrunk, it sold out within hours and was heralded as ‘electrifying’ and ‘glorious’. Now German audiences will have their own chance to experience this extraordinary work when the opera receives its German premiere at the Chemnitz Opera House on 23 March 2013. The opera is based on the original bloodsoaked play The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster. Rasch’s dark, rich music perfectly reflects the tortured drama. He uses a large orchestra and a cast of five singers including The Duchess, who will be sung in Chemnitz by mezzo Tiina Penttinen and Ferdinand sung by the counter-tenor Hagen Matzeit. The drama will be brought to life in a new production by the famous director Dietrich W. Hilsdorf and this will be the first time that the opera will be performed in its complete, re-ordered form. At the Chemnitz performance Frank Beerman will conduct the Robert Schumann Philharmonie.

Rasch has been commissioned by the Three Choirs Festival to write a collection of four songs based on texts by Ivor Gurney – composer and poet, A. E. Houseman – whose poems inspired a host of early twentieth-century composers, and Alun Lewis – widely considered one of the finest poets of WWII. This will be a rare opportunity for a German perspective on these most British figures. The resulting 10-minute work for baritone and piano will be premiered by Roderick Williams on 30 July in Gloucester. Rasch explains more: ‘The poems I choose for this short cycle deal with experiences in the war. Framed by 2 songs (Gurney’s ‘The Songs I had’ and Housman’s ‘Here dead we lie’) which look at loss and war in a more general way, the 2 songs in the centre (Alun Lewis’ ‘Post-Script: For Gweno and Gurney’s ‘Old Martinmas Eve’) have a very personal view. Naturally I tried to reflect this difference in the musical language as well. While the outer songs seek for an ‘immediate comprehensibility’ and are also kept more or less simple in its accompaniment, the central songs aim at a deep expressiveness of the personal experience.’

…and a major Three Choirs commission for 2014 The Gurney/Houseman/Lewis songs are a prelude to a much larger commission for the 2014 Three Choirs Festival: a major 40-minute work for choir, soloists and orchestra to mark the centenary of World War One. More details to follow.

Mendelssohn Lieder arrangements for Matthias Goerne September saw the premiere of Rasch’s Mendelssohn Lieder arrangements, was bedeutet die Bewegung…, in Leipzig with baritone Matthias Goerne and the Neues Bachisches Collegium Musicum. The 25-minute song-cycle uses seven of Mendelssohn’s Willemer Lieder with new transitions by Rasch linking each song. It is scored for baritone and 15 strings.

‘M.Goerne’s interpretation of the lively Fairy-song ‘Neue Liebe’ was hauntingly enthralling and he delivered ‘Auf der Wanderschaft’ - about the bitter farewell of the loved one - with agitation…’ Leipziger Volkszeitung (Anja Jaskowski), 15 September 2012

19 PHOTOS: TORSTEN RASCH © MAURICE FOXALL ‘THE DUCHESS OF MALFI’ © ENO/PUNCHDRUNKSTEPHEN CUMMISKEY

Carl Davis - Selected forthcoming performance

Carl Davis

Peter Sculthorpe

‘Ben Hur’ – a ‘winning score’

Australian outback conjured in Holland

Ben Hur

5.4.13, St-Georg-Kirche, Vreden, Germany: Staatsorchester Braunschweig/Helmut Imig

Speedy

6.4.13, The Grand Opera House, Dubuque, IA, USA: The Grand Opera House, Dubuque/Robert Tomaro

Safety Last

(French premiere) 12.4.13, La Cinémathèque de Toulouse, France: Orchestre symphonique de l’école de musique de Tournefeuille, Toulouse/Claude Puysséqur

Show People

13.4.13, Tobias Theater, Indianapolis Museum of Art, USA: Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra/ Kirk Trevor

27.4.13, Turner Classic Movies, Los Angeles, USA: Carl Davis

Alice in Wonderland

2, 3, 4.5.13, Crescent Theatre, Birmingham, UK: Midland Theatre Ballet/chor. Olivia Pickford

Easy Street/The Immigrant

(Luxembourg premieres) 4.5.13, Cinémathèque de la Ville de Luxembourg, Luxembourg: Orchestre Philharmonique Luxembourg/Carl Davis

The Freshman/ High and Dizzy (UK premiere) 17.5.13, Symphony Hall, Birmingham, UK: CBSO/Carl Davis

The Thief of Bagdad

1.6.13, Royal Festival Hall, London, UK: Philharmonia Orchestra/Carl Davis

The General

(Monaco premiere) 15, 16.6.13, Salle Garnier, Monte-Carlo, Monaco: Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo/ Philippe Béran

Peter Sculthorpe - Selected forthcoming performances Songs of Sea and Sky 28.5.13, Barker College, NSW, Australia: David Saffir/Barker College

Kakadu / Mangrove

13.7.13, Adelaide Festival Theatre, Adelaide, Australia: Adelaide Symphony Orchestra/ Benjamin Northey

Carl Davis’s mastery of the silent film score genre was Sculthorpe has long been a master of conjuring the further confirmed last October with the Liverpool landscape of his beloved home country and last screening of his score for the 1927 film Ben-Hur. December the ‘scent’ of Australia reached Holland ‘Davis remains one of the masters of this particular in a performance of Sculthorpe’s From Ubirr with the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic and art, which allows for light touches and humour as Lies Beijerinck on didgeridoo. well as ceremonial and ultra-dramatic decking. It

‘The concert hall’s roof opened up and its walls fell straight on their backs. From Ubirr… revealed to the public the large Australian outback. Tensed Liverpool Echo (Joe Riley), 29 October 2012 double bass drones and menacing waves of ‘Conducted by the score’s composer, the orchestra violins were stowed through the air like grim brought the film to life. Most notable were the two clouds. Then, as if the piece zoomed closer climaxes either side of the intermission – the battle towards the land, Lies Beijerinck’s didgeridoo vigorously captured the power of flora and scene and the chariot race – where the full force of the Philharmonic brass added a chilling aura to fauna. I was mesmerized... There was a desolate the overall effect... Davis’s score, now 23 years old, beauty as the didgeridoo played alone in the large concert hall, and there was magic when it sounded fresh...highly original and clever…’ Liverpool Daily Post (Glyn Mon Hughes), 1 November 2012 sounded in symbiosis with the waving structures of the string orchestra... This piece proved that they can be majestically interwoven...’ ‘Last Train to Tomorrow’ – vocal score may also influence the way appreciate film scores in their own right... Winning score.’

Faber Music is proud to release the vocal score of Last Train to Tomorrow, Davis’ dramatic narrative for children’s choir, actors & orchestra. The work tells the moving history of the Kindertransport which saw over 10,000 Jewish children brought to England by train from Eastern Europe in 1938-9. The piece received an extraordinary reaction at its premiere last summer with the Hallé Orchestra and Children’s Choir, and was chosen as one of the premieres of the year in Classical Music Magazine.

‘…I shall not forget it in a long time… It is vintage Davis – approachable, heartfelt, even sentimental, but passionate and single-minded in its message. If you want something for a top-class children’s choir to really get their teeth into, try this. It’s not often a new work’s world premiere gets a standing ovation from the entire hall.’ Classical Music Magazine (Robert Beale), December 2012 PHOTOS: (TOP LEFT) CARL DAVIS © TREVOR LEIGHTON PHOTOS: (TOP RIGHT) PETER SCULTHORPE © MAURICE FOXALL

Bachtrack (Rutger Muller), 2 January 2013

‘Great South Land’ world premiere Sculthorpe is composer in residence at this year’s Canberra Festival in May which will include the world premiere of his dramatic oratorio Great South Land, portraying Pedro Fernández de Quirós, the explorer credited with giving Australia its name.

Praise for exotic ‘Island Songs’ Praise continues for Island Songs (for saxophone, strings and percussion) premiered at the Presteigne Festival:

‘In this evocative tone poem for saxophone, strings and percussion, Sculthopre wove themes from the north of his native country into two introspective movements… the solo part had a poetic and freely eloquent quality... a potent sense of exoticism...’ Tempo (Paul Conway), January 2013

TUNING IN

Matthew Hindson

Malcolm Arnold

Matthew Hindson - Selected forthcoming performance Symphony No 2: E=mc²

(Japanese premiere) 28, 29.4, 2, 3, 4.5.13, New National Theatre, Tokyo, Japan: New National Ballet/ch. David Bintley/cond.Paul Murphy/ Tokyo PO

Septet

(orchestral version) (world premiere) 22, 23, 24.513, Tour, Australia: Sydney SO

Rave-Elation

(Russian premiere) 29.6.13, Novosibirsk Opera & Ballet Theatre, Russian Federation: tbc/Ainars Rubikis

Pulse Magnet

6.7.13, Old Granary Studio, Beccles, United Kingdom: Pascal Rogé/Ami Rogé

String Quartet No 2

New National Ballet stages ‘E=mc2’ in Tokyo

Collins dazzles in Arnold’s Clarinet Concerto No.2

David Bintley’s ballet E=mc2, with its commissioned orchestral score by Hindson, won the South Bank Show Award for Dance in 2010. Bintley is now to recreate E=mc2 with New National Ballet in Tokyo. They give five performances there in April and May this year, with live orchestral accompaniment by the Tokyo PO conducted by Paul Murphy.

Clarinettist Michael Collins dazzles in a new recording of Sir Malcolm Arnold’s Clarinet Concerto No.2, a work written for and inspired by Benny Goodman with the direction to ‘improvise cadenza, as jazzy and way out as you please.’ The new disc, released by Chandos, sees Collins take up the role of both soloist and conductor, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra sounding on top form.

Elias Quartet to premiere Hindson’s Second Quartet on Musica Viva tour One of the UK’s leading string quartets, the Elias Quartet, is to premiere Hindson’s newly commissioned String Quartet No 2 as part of its Musica Viva Australia tour in August and September this year. They will give 12 performances of the 20-minute piece which has been commissioned for Musica Viva Australia by Julian Burnside AO, QC.

‘Kalkadungu’ scoops ARIA Award Kalkadungu is the striking work for soloist and orchestra, co-written in 2007 by Matthew Hindson and didjeridu virtuoso, William Barton. The piece is a vehicle for Barton’s outstanding talents and call on him to sing and play electric guitar, in addition to playing the didjeridu. ABC Classics released the premiere recording in June 2012 to great acclaim, with Richard Gill conducting the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. The CD has now won a prestigious ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) award for Best Classical Album of 2012.

Canberra SO to take up ‘House Music’ Following its resounding success at the National Flute Association’s Anniversary Conference in Las Vegas, Hindson’s flute concerto House Music is to be given its full Australian premiere. Virginia Taylor will join the Canberra Symphony Orchestra and Nicholas Milton for two performances of the piece on 21 and 22 August. (TOP LEFT) MATTHEW HINDSON © BRIDGET ELLIOTT (TOP RIGHT) MALCOM ARNOLD © HOWARD COSTER

‘Arnold’s Second Clarinet Concerto has a sharper edge that lies tantalisingly between neo-classicism and neo-romanticism. All three movements are highly characterful in their exploration of dance, ragtime and song, though the wistful slow movement is most evocative’ Gramophone (Jeremy Dibble), January 2013

*Recording of the month*

‘Arnold inhabits a lonely city nightscape. Consolation is found in temporary associations - first the oboe and then the flute duetting like desultory dancers in a late-night dive.’

(world premiere) 16, 17, 19, 21, 22, 23, 27, 31.8, 2, 3, 5.13, Tour, Australia: Elias String Quartet

House Music

(Australian premiere) 21, 22.8.13, Llewellyn Hall, Canberra, ACT, Australia: Virginia Taylor/Canberra SO/ Nicholas Milton

Malcolm Arnold - Selected forthcoming performances Four Cornish Dances

12, 13.4.13, St John’s Hall, Penzance, UK: Cornwall Youth Orchestra/Tim Boulton

Symphony No 6

12.4.13, Weston Auditorium, Hatfield, UK: Rufus Frowde/ Hertfordshire Schools SO

Music Web International (Nick Barnard), November 2012

Nicholas Maw String Quartet No. 3 performed in NY One of the highlights of Nicholas Maw’s rich catalogue is his five-movement String Quartet No.3 – a work described as a ‘masterpiece’ in The Sunday Times. The quartet was performed in New York this January as part of the Julliard School’s Focus Festival, celebrating the very best of British music since the second world war. The festival’s indefatigable artistic director, Joel Sachs, was especially keen to feature this ‘gorgeous’ quartet and to include Maw in this survey – a composer who was, after all, highly regarded in both Britain and the US.

NEW WORKS STAGE WORKS

CHAMBER ENSEMBLE

DANIEL PATRICK COHEN The Pleasure Garden (2012)

DEREK BERMEL Dragon Blue (2012)

Silent film score (film directed by Alfred Hitchcock). Duration 90 minutes. FP: 28.6.2012, London 2012 Festival, Wilton’s Music Hall, London, UK: Royal Academy of Music Manson Ensemble/Christopher Austin. Commissioned by PRS Foundation for Music. 0.0.2 cl in Bb(I+II=cl in A + bcl).asax(=tsax).1 – 1.0.0.btrbn.0 - perc(1)– pno – vln.vla.vlc.db. Score and parts on hire

Chamber ensemble of 7 players (Western and Chinese instruments). Duration 12 minutes. FP: 28.3.2012, Ecstatic Music Festival, Merkin Hall, New York, NY, USA: Music from Copland House/Music from China. Commissioned with funds from the Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, and Friends of Copland House. cl - pno - vln.vlc - pipa - erhu - zheng. Score and parts for hire

VALGEIR SIGURÐSSON Architecture of Loss (2012) Ballet for chamber ensemble of 3 players and electronics. Duration 30 minutes. FP: 6.3.2012, The Joyce Theater, New York, NY, USA: Stephen Petronio Company/ch. Stephen Petronio/Valgeir Sigurðsson/Nadia Sirota/Shahzad Ismaily. pno(=BD+tape) - vla.electric bass(=synth/waterphone/shaker/BD). Score and parts for hire

ORCHESTRA FRANCISCO COLL In Extremis (2012) Cantata for choir and orchestra. Duration 17 minutes. FP: 26.7.12, Teatre Romá, Sagunto, Spain: JOGV/Manuel Galduf. Commissioned by the Institute of Music of Valencia for the JOGV. picc.2.2.ca. ebcl.2.bcl.2.cbsn - 4.3.2.btrbn.0 - perc(6) - harp/pno/cel - SATB choir - strings. Text: 56 and 32 of The Poems (Carmina) of Gaius Valerius Catullus (84? – 54 B.C.). Score and parts on hire

HOWARD GOODALL Inspired (2012) Adapted from O Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem/rogate pacem - Psalm 122.solo guitar and chamber orchestra. Duration 4 minutes. FP: 14.2.2013, Classic FM Live, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, UK: Craig Ogden/Orchestra of Welsh National Opera/Frederic Chaslin. solo gtr - cl -harp - pno - strings. Score and parts for hire

JONNY GREENWOOD Suite from ‘There Will Be Blood’ (2012) String orchestra (10.8.6.6.4), with ondes martenot (or oboe). Duration 16 minutes. FP: 16.06.2012, Holland Festival, Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands: Amsterdam Sinfonietta/André de Ridder. ondes martenot (or oboe) - strings (10.8.6.6.4). Score and parts for hire

MATTHEW HINDSON The stars above us all (2012)

MATTHEW HINDSON String Quartet No 2 (2013) String quartet. Duration 20 minutes. FP: 16.8.2013, Musica Viva Australia tour, Coffs Harbour Music Society, NSW, Australia: Elias String Quartet. Commissioned for Musica Viva Australia by Julian Burnside, AO QC. In preparation

COLIN MATTHEWS Nowhere to hide (2013) Piano trio. Duration 14 minutes. FP: 5.7.13, Cheltenham Music Festival, Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham, UK: Schubert Ensemble. Commissioned by the Schubert Ensemble for its 30th Anniversary with funds gratefully received from the John S Cohen Foundation, the Steel Charitable Trust, the PRS for Music Foundation and the Schubert Ensemble Trust. pno.vln.vcl. Exclusive until July 2014

COLIN MATTHEWS String Quartet No 4 (2012) String quartet. Duration 16 minutes. FP: 15.11.2012, Wigmore Hall, London, UK: Elias String Quartet. Commissioned by the Wigmore Hall. score and parts on special sale from the Hire Library after the premiere

DAVID MATTHEWS A Blackbird Sang (2013) Flute and string trio. Duration 12 minutes. FP: 19.3.13, Wigmore Hall, London, UK: Nash Ensemble. Commissioned by the Nash Ensemble with funds provided by the Concerts Society with financial assistance from the Britten-Pears Foundation and the Nash Concert Society. fl.vln.vla.vcl. Score and parts on special sale from the Hire Library

VALGEIR SIGURÐSSON Dreamland (2013) Chamber ensemble and electronics. Duration 30 minutes. FP: 15.02.2013, Sónar Festival, Reykjavik: Valgeir Sigurðsson, Nadia Sirota, Liam Byrne. In preparation

Chamber orchestra. Duration 5 minutes. FP: September 2012, Hush Music Foundation recording, Hobart, Australia: Tasmanian SO/Benjamin Northey. Commissioned by the Hush Music Foundation. picc(=afl).1.1.ca.2 cl in A.2 - 2100 - timp - perc(1)- cel - harp - strings. Score and parts for hire

WIND BAND

COLIN MATTHEWS Fortyssimo (2012)

Wind band. Duration 10 minutes. FP: 12.8.12, BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall, London, UK: National Youth Wind Orchestra of Great Britain/James Gourlay. Commissioned by the BBC. Score and parts in preparation

GAVIN HIGGINS Der Aufstand (2012)

Orchestra. Duration 4 minutes. FP: 23.3.12, St John’s, Waterloo, London, UK: Lambeth Orchestra/ Christopher Fifield. Written as a fortieth birthday gift for the Lambeth Orchestra and their conductor, Christopher Fifield. 3.2.ca.2.bcl.2.cbsn - 4331 - timp - perc(3) - harp - pno - strings. Score and parts on hire

INSTRUMENTAL

DAVID MATTHEWS Fortune’s Wheel (2012)

Solo violin. Duration 9 minutes. For Carolin Widman. Score on special sale from the Hire Library

Chorus and orchestra. Duration 15 minutes. FP: 8.12.2012, Winchester Cathedral, UK: Waynflete Singers/ Aurora Orchestra/Andrew Lumsden. Commissioned by The Waynflete Singers. perc(1) - strings (65332). Text: From Boethius: De consolatione philosophiae, Book II (translation by W.V.Cooper, adapted). Score and parts on hire

GABRIEL PROKOFIEV Concerto for Bass Drum and Orchestra (2012) Bass drum and orchestra. Duration 26 minutes. FP: 9.2.2012, Alexander Hall, Princeton, NJ, USA: Joby Burgess/Princeton SO/Rossen Milanov. Commissioned by London Contemporary Orchestra and Princeton Symphony. 2(II=picc).2(II=ca).2(II=bcl).2(II=cbsn) - 2.2.2.btrbn.1 - strings. Score and parts for hire

Spheres (2012) Solo violin and string orchestra. Duration 4 minutes. FP: DG recording session, Berlin: Daniel Hope/ Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin/Simon Halsey. Score and parts for hire.

TORSTEN RASCH Das Haus der Temperamente (2013) Suite based on the opera The Duchess of Malfi. orchestra. Duration 27 minutes. FP: 17.4.2013, Städtische Theater Chemnitz: Robert-Schumann-Philharmonie/Frank Beermann. Commissioned by Städtische Theater Chemnitz. 3(II+III=picc).2.ca.3(III=bcl)2.cbsn - 4331 - timp - per(3) - harp - cel - strings (14.12.10.8.6). Score and parts in preparation

GORDON THORNETT Festive Overture: The Joy of Christmas (2011/arr. 2012) Version for chamber orchestra with optional chorus. FP: 21.12.2012, St George’s Brandon Hill, Bristol, UK: City of Bristol Ensemble & Choir/David Ogden. 1(=picc ad lib).1.1.1 - 1200 - timp - perc(2) - (opt cel [=org]) - (SATB chorus) - strings

JULIAN ANDERSON Another Prayer (2012) FRANCISCO COLL Melisma (2013) violin and piano. Duration 3 ½ minutes. FP: 20.6.13, Festspiele Mecklenburg Vorpommern: Byol Kang and Boris Kusnezow. Commissioned by the Borletti-Buitoni Trust for Duo Kang Kusnezow. Public performance exclusivity in Germany for two years, and one year for rest of world.

HOWARD GOODALL Shackleton’s Cross (2012) Edward Seago 1957. Trumpet and organ. Duration 5 minutes. FP: 8.11.2012, Concert Hall, Reading, UK: Crispian Steele-Perkins/David Goode. Score and part on special sale from the Hire Library (hire@ fabermusic.com)

MATTHEW HINDSON Song for Sophie (2012) Violin and piano. Duration 5 minutes. FP: 14.2.2013, Abercrombie House, Bathurst, NSW, Australia: Sarah Coghlan/Cindy Fox. Commissioned by Cindy Fox. Score and part on special sale from the Hire Library (hire@fabermusic.com). Premiere reserved for Cindy Fox

CHORAL HOWARD GOODALL I am Christmas Day (2012) Carol for SATB choir and organ (or piano). Duration 4 minutes. FP: 5.12.2012, Southwark Cathedral, London, UK: Southwark Cathedral Girls Choir (conductor Stephen Disley)/Howard Goodall. Commissioned by Mercy Ships UK to honour those we serve, and those who serve the poorest of the poor. Text: Howard Goodall (eng). Score on sale from Choralstore.com, or on special sale from the Hire Library (hire@ fabermusic.com)

NEW PUBLICATIONS AND RECORDINGS JONATHAN HARVEY Plainsongs for Peace and Light (2012) Sixteen voices. Duration 8 minutes. FP: 13.3.13 Commissioned by Tenso (European Network of professional chamber choirs), and Sinfonia 21 in recognition of its long and fruitful association with the composer. Text: Elaborations of Easter, Graduale II ad Missam in die, Christmas, Alleluia II ad Missam in die, Ordinary time week III, Alleluia VIII. Score in preparation

MORTEN LAURIDSEN Prayer (2012) SATB chorus and piano. Duration 6 minutes. FP: 10.2.2013, Aaron Copland House, Cortlandt, NY, USA: West Choirs of Doylestown, PA/Dr Joseph Ohrt. Dana Gioia. Score on sale (in preparation)

MATTHEW MARTIN O Rex Gentium (2012) SATB (divisi). Duration 3 minutes. FP: 4.5.12, Merton College, Oxford, UK: Choir of Merton College Oxford/Benjamin Nicholas. Score 0-571-53725-1 on sale

DAVID MATTHEWS Psalm 23 The Lord is my Shepherd (2012) SATB and strings. Duration 5 minutes. FP: 23.1.13, St Martin in the Fields, London, UK: Addison Singers/David Wordsworth. Score and parts on hire, vocal score on sale 0-571-52466-4

CARL VINE Ring Out, Wild Bells (2012) Large choir (SSAATTB). Duration 4 minutes. FP: 24.12.12, Kings College, Cambridge, UK: Choir of Kings College Cambridge/Stephen Cleobury. Commissioned by Robin Boyle for the Choir of Kings College, Cambridge. Text: Ring out, wild bells by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. score on special sale from the hire library

NEW PUBLICATIONS THOMAS ADÈS Polaris

Orchestra. Full score 0-571-53682-4 £34.99

JULIAN ANDERSON Bell Mass

SATB accompanied. 0-571-53696-4 £4.50

GEORGE BENJAMIN Written on Skin

Opera. Full score (cased) 0-571-53759-6 £125 Opera. Libretto 0-571-53760-X £7.99

BENJAMIN BRITTEN Six Early Songs

Voice and piano. 0-571-51190-2 £10.99

Piano Variations

Piano. 0-571-52057-X £9.99

Two pieces for Violin, Viola and Piano Score and parts. 0-571-52361-7 £24.99

CARL DAVIS Last Train to Tomorrow

Dramatic narrative for children’s choir, actors (or speakers) & orchestra. Vocal score 0-57153757-X £14.99

HOWARD GOODALL Every Purpose Under the Heaven

Soprano solo, tenor solo, SATB choir and chamber orchestra or piano. Vocal score 0-571-537189 £9.99

Inspired

Solo piano. Score 0-571-53743-X £9.99

MATTHEW MARTIN I Saw the Lord SATB. 0-571-57095-X £3.50

COLIN MATTHEWS Machines and Dreams

Toy instruments and full orchestra. Full score 0-571-53398-1 £24.99

Monsieur Croche

Orchestra. Full score 0-571-53024-9 £9.99

COLIN MATTHEWS No Man’s Land

Tenor, baritone and chamber orchestra. Full score 0-571-53756-1 £24.99

DAVID MATTHEWS Symphony No 7

Full orchestra. Full score 0-571-53761-8 £24.99

NEW RECORDINGS SIR MALCOLM ARNOLD Clarinet Concerto No. 2 Michael Collins/BBC Symphony Orchestra Chandos B00925TAZU

GEORGE BENJAMIN Written on Skin/Duet

Christopher Purces/Babara Hannigan/Bejun Mehta/Rebecca Jo Loeb/Allan Clayton/Mahler Chamber Orchestra/George Benjamin/Pierre-Laurent Aimard Nimbus NI 5885/6

DEREK BERMEL Canzonas Americanas; Three Rivers; At the End of the World; Hot Zone; Continental Divide; Natural Selection (all premiere recordings) Alarm Will Sound/Alan Pierson Canteloupe CA21088

BENJAMIN BRITTEN Sacred and Profane Polyphony/Stephen Layton Hyperion CDH55438

The Canticles

Ben Johnson/Christopher Ainslie/Benedict Nelson Signum Classics

Canticle V

Nicholas Phan/Myra Huang/Jennifer Montone/Sivan Magen/ Alan Cumming Avie

Cello Suites

Jean-Guihen Queyras Harmonia Musique d’Abord HMF 1951670

Cello Suites

Philip Higham Delphian DCD34125

Third Suite for Cello

Matthew Barley Signum Classics SIGCD318

HOWARD GOODALL Inspired: The Essential Collection

(includes premiere recording of Every Purpose Under the Heaven) Laura Wright/Noah Stewart/Craig Ogden/Enchanted Voices/Howard Goodall CO/Howard Goodall Decca/Classic FM CFMD28

DAVID MATTHEWS Piano Concerto/Piano Sonata/Variations for Piano/ Two Dionysus Dithyrambs/One to Tango Laura Mikkola/Orchestra Nova/George Vass Toccata Classics TOCC0166

GABRIEL PROKOFIEV Spheres

(premiere recording) Daniel Hope/Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin/Simon Halsey Deutsche Grammophon 479 0571

MARGARET RIZZA Mysterium Amoris

(premiere recordings of 15 choral works) Gaudete Ensemble/Eamonn Dougan Naxos 8.573039

Valgeir Sigurðsson signs to Faber Music ‘One of the most open-eared talents in that no man’s land between experimental and potentially market-gratifying music.’ (Touching Extremes)

‘The music [...] can sound chill and eerie: there’s singing, echoing, rasping, crackling. At times, the piano emits single, spaced-out notes that sound like water dripping resoundingly on ice in a momentary thaw.’ (Arts Journal)

We are delighted to announce the signing of a new publishing agreement with the Icelandic composer, Valgeir Sigurðsson (b.1971). An acclaimed composer, producer, engineer and musician, Sigurdsson is the founder of Greenhouse Studios and the Reykjavik-based Bedroom Community record label. The latter is also home to Nico Muhly, Ben Frost and Sam Amidon, with all of whom Sigurðsson works closley. He is perhaps best-known as Björk’s collaborator through four of her studio albums and has also worked with artists such as Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, CocoRosie, Feist, Damon Albarn, Brian Eno, and the Kronos Quartet. Sigurðsson’s compositional career launched in 2007 with his solo disc Ekvilibrium which included co-written songs with Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, as well as mostly original material by himself. With Muhly, director Stewart Matthew, and French perfumer Christophe Laudamiel, Sigurðsson co-wrote Green Aria: A ScentOpera (2009), a revolutionary and olfactory staged work, which premiered at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. He has since written Draumalandið (2010), an acclaimed documentary film score, later released as an album, and reworked as a 30-minute orchestral suite, Dreamland, performed thus far by the Iceland SO and Winnipeg SO. His third album, Architecture of Loss (2012), is a 30-minute ballet score commissioned by Stephen Petronio Company in New York. In addition, Sigurðsson has written Nebraska (2011), for the US-based Chiara String Quartet, and premiered at the Ecstatic Music Festival in New York. Future commissions include two works for orchestra and electronics and a work for large ensemble. Sigurðsson has recently completed a 23-date tour of his music to Europe and the USA, joined by Nadia Sirota (viola) and Liam Byrne (viola da gamba).

Nishat Khan: Concerto for Sitar and Orchestra Indian composer and sitar master, Nishat Khan, has written a new Concerto for Sitar and Orchestra. It will be unveiled in London this summer, by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and David Atherton, with the composer as soloist. More next time.

Gabriel Prokofiev: ballet news & Deutsche Grammophon release Gabriel Prokofiev’s Concerto for Turntables & Orchestra is proving to be a natural for dance. Cathy Marston made it the focal point of a full-evening work for Bern:Ballet in 2011, and now Karole Armitage has choreographed it for Armitage Gone! Dance, in New York, giving eight performances in January and February:

‘… proves that classical/electro hybrids can and do work…’ Huffington Post (Kathleen Massara), 8 February 2013

A newly-commissioned electronic ballet, Howl, debuted on 9 March. It has been commissioned by Tanz Luzerner Theater for US choreographer, Maurice Causey. They give 11 performances before 11 June. Meanwhile, Prokofiev has written the title track for Daniel Hope’s new Deutsche Grammophon release, Spheres. It’s a 4-minute piece for violin and strings (provided by Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin under Simon Halsey). Prokofiev has enjoyed two separate portrait concerts in recent months, with the Copenhagen PO on 25 January (Bass Drum Concerto and Turntables Concerto), and then with Art of Time Ensemble (Toronto) on 22 and 23 February (Two Dances for String Trio, Bass Clarinet, Piano and Scratch DJ and String Quartet No 1. A newly-commissioned Cello Concerto receives its first performance on 18 May, with Alexander Ivashkin the soloist, with the St Petersburg PO. Ivashkin then takes the concerto to Caracas on 19 June with the State PO of Venezuela and Theodore Kuchar.

Howard Goodall: ‘Inspired’ - Decca release soars high in charts Now out on Decca is a new all-Goodall release. Inspired – The Essential Collection features much of Goodall’s best-loved music, including TV theme favourites such as Blackadder, The Vicar of Dibley, Q.I., Mr Bean and Red Dwarf and the title track, Inspired (with Craig Ogden on guitar). The recording also includes the premiere recording of the oratorio, Every purpose under the heaven with soloists Laura Wright and Noah Stewart. Goodall himself conducts the Enchanted Voices choir and the Howard Goodall Chamber Orchestra:

‘raw choral writing conveying pure human emotion’ ‘Goodall’s oratorio, Every purpose under the heaven, combines the best elements of his instrumental and vocal writing, making use of atmospheric orchestral effects as well as raw choral writing conveying pure human emotion. It’s a perfect vehicle for the Biblical text… Whether sung, strummed, plucked, or bowed, Goodall’s tuneful melodies shine through every piece on the album, in this moving collection of heart-warming music.’ Classic FM, January 2013

We’re delighted that the vocal score of Every purpose under the heaven is now in print and that performing materials are available from our Hire Library. Perusal materials available from: musicfornow@fabermusic.com. There is also a matching solo piano album to the ‘Inspired’ recording. Available from fabermusicstore.com.

Jonny Greenwood commissioned by Australian Chamber Orchestra Jonny Greenwood enjoyed a short residency with the Australian CO late last year, spending time with Richard Tognetti and the orchestra in Sydney, and workshopping a work-in-progress with them. The end result will be premiered by the ACO in 2014.

Derek Bermel: ‘Canzonas Americanas’ – acclaim for Alarm Will Sound’s all-Bermel release Canteloupe Records have released an all-Bermel album, Canzonas Americanas, focussing on the US composer’s fascinating and diverse output of works for large ensemble including Three Rivers, Continental Divide, Hot Zone, and his Faber Music Millennium Series commission, Natural Selection. Performers are the crack US group, Alarm Will Sound under Alan Pierson.

‘The title track, Canzonas Americanas, which has the heart-grabbing melodies and Technicolour sound to become an overnight hit, was commissioned and premiered by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel. Throughout, the musical experience is absorbing, eventful, involving and not above using cheeky references to favourites such as Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony to score entertainment points.’ Gramophone (Laurence Vittes), February 2013

‘It’s hard to know what to be more dazzled by in the music of composer Derek Bermel - the range of stylistic voices he cultivates or the profusion of ingenuity, beauty and wit he brings to everything he touches. This superb new compilation by the New York ensemble Alarm Will Sound shows off the many sides of Bermel’s musical personality… nothing short of magnificent.’ San Francisco Chronicle (Joshua Kosman), 10 February 2013

Mark Bradshaw Mark has composed the music for the Australian-made 10part drama series Top of the Lake, directed by Jane Campion. First broadcast is scheduled for BBC2 this Spring.

Graham Hadfield Dan Jones Dan provided the music for the BBC1’s three-part adaptation of James Herbert’s chilling ghost story The Secret of Crickley Hall, broadcast over three Sundays last November/December. Moving between 1943 and 2010, the series featured superb performances by Suranne Jones, Tom Ellis and Douglas Henshall. Dan also composed the music for Channel 4’s 4-parter The Fear, also broadcast in December and starring Peter Mullan.

Faber Music is delighted to announce the signing of a new publishing agreement with Graham Hadfield. Having obtained a Ph.D in composition from London’s City University, Graham went on to study composition at the National Film and Television School. Graham’s concert music has been performed all round the world, although he now focuses on media composition.

Philip Sheppard Early in 2012 Philip worked on the feature length documentary Love, Marilyn, directed by Liz Garbus, in which various stars including F. Murray Abraham, Glen Close and Jennifer Ehle talk about the impact Marilyn Monroe continues to have on their lives. Philip was then much preoccupied with composing and organising the music for the Dubai New Year’s Eve celebrations -performed live on the night. Most recently Philip scored Greg Barker’s documentary film about the CIA’s espionage war against Al Qaeda, Manhunt.

Simon Rogers Simon is the latest Faber Music composer to work on the BBC’s perenially popular children’s drama serial, Young Dracula. Music for earlier series has been created by John Rea (series 1) and Nick Lloyd (series 2 and 3).

BOOKS ON MUSIC FROM FABER & FABER The Time by the Sea Aldeburgh 1956-1958

Ronald Blythe, Hardback £14.99, Publication: June 2013

Published to coincide with the centenary of Britten’s birth, The Time by the Sea charts Ronald Blythe’s life in Aldeburgh during the 1950s. He had originally come to the Suffolk coast as an aspiring young writer, but found himself drawn into Benjamin Britten’s circle and began working for the Aldeburgh Festival. Although befriended by Imogen

Holst and by E M Forster, part of him remained essentially solitary, alone in the landscape while surrounded by a stormy cultural sea. But this memoir gathers up many early experiences, sights and sounds: with Britten he explored ancient churches; with the botanist Denis Garrett he took delight in the marvellous shingle beaches and marshland plants; he worked alongside the celebrated photo-journalist Kurt Hutton. His muse was Christine Nash, wife of the artist John Nash. The Time by the Sea is a tale of music and painting, creativity and landscape. It describes the first steps of an East Anglian journey, an intimate appraisal of a vivid and memorable time.

EXTRACT On first meeting Benjamin Britten ‘My interview burns in my memory to this day, each minute of it fixed. The coming into the same room where a few months earlier I had worked on [E M Forster’s] biography of his aunt, the woman who had saved him from having to get a job of any sort, and standing before Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears and Stephen Reiss, the latter blinking through his glasses. . Ben and Peter were in shorts and I was wearing my tweed jacket and green corduroy trousers, and a tie. They stared gently at me. … Doors were wide open fore and aft and a fresh breeze poured from the sea into Crabbe Street.’

WWW.FABER.CO.UK 26

PUBLISHING NEWS WRITTEN ON SKIN ‘Shatter the printing press. Make each new book a precious object written on skin.’ (Martin Crimp, extract from Written on Skin)

The birth of any opera is a special event. The birth of George Benjamin’s Written on Skin has been extraordinary. It is once in generation, or even a lifetime, that a new opera receives such unanimous acclaim and so many major performances within its first few years. To reflect the remarkable impact of this opera, Faber Music is releasing its very own ‘precious object,’ a limited edition of the full score signed by the composer. One hundred and fifty copies of this First Edition have been produced as a special limited edition and are numbered, signed by the composer and included in a special presentation slipcase. This unprecedented publishing venture – from premiere to published full score in only 7 months – has been made possible by the especially close relationship between composer and publisher; a relationship that goes back to the time when Benjamin joined the prestigious ‘House Composer’ list in 1976 as a sixteen year-old. Faber Music is proud and delighted that his ventures into opera – Into the Little Hill (2006) and Written on Skin (2009-12) – have made such an impact within the international operatic community.

Limited First Edition Full Score Signed and Cased 0-571-53759-6 ‘Written on Skin’: Limited Edition Full Score

THE LANGUAGE OF FOLK

Katherine Zeserson, Director of Learning and Participation, talks about two new collections of folksongs recently published by Faber Music in association with her organisation The Sage Gateshead:

“Folk songs, perhaps more than any other strand of vocal repertoire, offer an unparalleled opportunity for the singer to dig deep and find a personal relationship with the material. They provide us with a living archaeology and geology of human life – traces of the past to interpret and imagine, with instantly recognisable passions, joys and sorrows that are both timeless and contemporary. Whether composed in the idiom or passed down through centuries of singing, these songs connect us to the very roots of our musical lineage and invite us to leave our own trace on it through sharing our singing. These two books are meant as an introduction to the world of folk song and can be no more than a drop in the ocean in terms of the range of song types, subject matter, melodies and vocal styles found in folk music. The majority of the songs in the volumes have their origins in the British Isles, though one or two come from America or further afield. Many of the songs are very old; however, folk song is a living tradition, so the books also contain modern songs that have been assimilated into the folk music tradition in recent years. It has been a complete joy for us to work with Faber Music to bring these collections of folk songs together for singers to discover, explore, embody and make their own. Writing folk songs down is always tricky, as the notated version will only ever be a captured moment in time – one singer’s way. We hope that this resource will enable singers now to bring these songs alive their way.” The Sage Gateshead runs an internationally renowned folk music programme. It will be running workshops/ performances based on The Language of Folk during June and July 2013 – check www.thesagegateshead.org for more information.

£150 (concessionary price of £115 incl P&P within UK & Europe until 30 April 2013) 302x210x35mm

0-571-53732-4 ‘Language of Folk 1’: ElementaryIntermediate Level (book/CD) £9.99

The signed, limited edition full score of ‘Written on Skin’ is now available to order at the concessionary price by contacting Faber Music:

Contact: +44 (0)1279 82 89 82 or sales@fabermusic.com.

416 pages

0-571-53733-2 ‘Language of Folk 2’: Intermediate-Advanced (book/CD) £9.99

+44 (0)1279 82 89 82 or sales@fabermusic.com.

JONATHAN HARVEY 1939-2012

HEAD OFFICE Faber Music Ltd

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We are deeply sorry to announce that Jonathan ‘…music both earthy and other-worldly, of Harvey died peacefully in Lewes on 4 December mesmerising intensity yet immediate appeal.’ 2012. He had been suffering for some years from a Gramophone Magazine (Arnold Whittall), January 2013 terminal illness of the central nervous system. Harvey came to Faber ‘If Jonathan Harvey Music in 1977 and we has not always been ‘Some celebrated composers have been extraordinarily a prophet in his own proud and honoured to country, he will however fade after death, their fame have been his exclusive live in the memory of dependent on personality publisher since that time all our musicians as the – in essence a period of and on networks of most exemplary and most 35 years during which he delicious English figure influence. Harvey will only has written most of his imaginable, who at first best music.We print below ascend.’ glance aroused respect some of the comments Alex Ross, 5 December 2012 and attachment.’ prompted by his passing:

‘The gentle, soft-spoken yet fiercely intellectual Harvey was a remarkable synthesis: steeped in the traditions and spirituality of English cathedral music, yet trained in the avant-garde world of Pierre Boulez’s IRCAM laboratory in Paris. The music he wrote was a similarly wonderful hybrid, using electronics alongside acoustic instruments and choirs to create visionary soundworlds…’

Jean-Luc Plouvier, Ictus Ensemble

The Times (Richard Morrison), 5 December 2012

‘The truth is Harvey’s output is quite unlike any other and it is perhaps its very diversity which makes it unique, and uniquely useful to a range of publics and communities, a diversity achieved unlike so many others without compromise, and which one feels Britten would certainly have appreciated.’

‘We have lost a hugely important figure in classical music. His was a powerfully original music which rightly received international acclaim. His gentle spirit and inner strength impressed me greatly and he will be much missed.’

‘Harvey was unique in the way he put digital technology and a strenuously rational approach to music at the service of a deeply spiritual message. In terms of international profile and honours, Harvey’s status was almost on a par with his slightly older colleagues Harrison Birtwistle and Peter Maxwell Davies. While they have always been in the news, thanks to their pugnaciously unfashionable views and hard-edged modernism, Harvey’s rise was so inconspicuous that even the musical world seemed not to realise just how eminent he had become.’ The Guardian (Ivan Hewett), 5 December 2012

‘His impact as a composer has been profound and international in its scope. The spirituality of his music also pervaded Julian Anderson his personality; no one who met him came away ‘…however sad Roger Wright, controller BBC Radio 3 & Proms director without commenting Jonathan’s death is, we on his gentleness, are still the lucky ones for generosity and breadth of being in possession of all imagination… Music simply poured out of him, the wonderful music that he left behind, and we naturally and organically. In every sense he was hope that the performances of Wagner Dream a superior human being and one that it has been next summer will be a worthy tribute not only to a privilege to know, as much as it has been a his enormous value as a musician, but also as a delight to treasure his music.’ visionary human being.’ David Pountney, Artistic Director, Welsh National Opera

Sally Cavender, Vice-Chairman, Faber Music